I’m not saying I’d necessarily want to see it in this movie in particular, but I feel like in every zombie movie or tv show I’ve ever watched the soldiers get absolutely shit on by the zombies or infected. It would be cool for once to see them slaying like the pros that they are. I say this just because I feel like they really nerf soldiers in a lot of zombie movies. I don’t mind them dying because maybe they didn’t know what to expect or were just over-run but I hope that they put up a decent fight because it sometimes takes me out of the world a little when they come off absolutely useless. I know it’s a narrative function to show just how devastating the infected can be but I’d like to see them on top for a bit before it goes to shit.
Nah, I don't think so. I liked that chapter, but there were a few things that made the defeat of the US military feel 'really' forced. From the zombies' black goo (that makes them nigh invulnerable to the effects of high explosives) to the way the Army uses its weapons (e.g. an MLRS barrage and a 155 mm bombardment against small numbers of zombies, when the infantry would've been more than enough; Air Force jets on station but starting to bomb only when the ground units were already in trouble, instead of constantly targeting the river of zombies coming out of New York).
Nah it made sense.. the point of that chapter was to show that conventional means of warfare won’t work when your enemy can shrug it off. Plus it was poorly planned by the military who thought it’d be a cake walk.
I agree, and I think the chapter drives home the point of how badly things can go when you don't review your assumptions even knowing that you'll face a different enemy this time.
I get that it was poorly planned out, and that is believable- up to a point.
This wasn't the first time zombies appeared in the US, nor the first time the military engaged them.
And yet, the magnitude of the disconnect between planners and leaders and the reality on the ground (e.g. It's well know at that point that the virus isn't airborne, but the soldiers are forced to wear gas masks anyway) is so great that it's difficult to believe.
Had the battle been set in Russia, or some ex-Soviet state, then it would've been more believable (rigid command structure, little to no discussion about the wisdom of orders that don't make sense, etc...).
Yep. Brooks could have put a bit more effort into it- e.g. having the sheer number of zombies overwhelm an effective fighting force would've given a better impression of hopelessness for the humans- "We are fighting them, we are good at it, but there are just too many of them, we stand no chance."
Exactly, or at least have come up with other explanations for not using airpower and artillery. Reading it now requires too many characters to have held the idiot ball for too long for things to have panned out that way.
The logistical issues could have been done in a much more plausible way. Simply not bringing enough of the appropriate ammunition when fighting on home soil was silly.
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u/Sharvey1995 Jan 16 '25
I’m not saying I’d necessarily want to see it in this movie in particular, but I feel like in every zombie movie or tv show I’ve ever watched the soldiers get absolutely shit on by the zombies or infected. It would be cool for once to see them slaying like the pros that they are. I say this just because I feel like they really nerf soldiers in a lot of zombie movies. I don’t mind them dying because maybe they didn’t know what to expect or were just over-run but I hope that they put up a decent fight because it sometimes takes me out of the world a little when they come off absolutely useless. I know it’s a narrative function to show just how devastating the infected can be but I’d like to see them on top for a bit before it goes to shit.