SnoReptilePlenty
Memorable, crazy movie
Janis
One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
Katie Jurek
Not one of Schwarzenegger's best. The movie just led up to nothingness. There was no true conflict, no true resolution; it just existed, and not in a beautiful, poetic way, but pointlessly. Nothing happened, and nothing was explained. The movie would have been much more effective and dramatic if the affliction hadn't been about zombies.
ZombieMovieExpert
Easily in the top 5 most boring zombie movies i have ever seen. Do you want a zombie movie that has nothing to do with zombies & absolutely nothing interesting happens? Then this is the movie for you.
David Cox
This film is bleak and ultimately pretty boring. Unfortunately. Because I like the premise and the take on the zombie genre.The premise is simple: Arnie plays Wade, a farmer/father just trying to look after his daughter after she gets bitten by a zombie and begins the multiple week transformation into a zombie. This creates the chance for the nuance of the zombie genre to really flex its metaphorical undertones and really have a slow paced and personal look at the ramifications of dehumanising someone into a monster. I dig the hell out of that. Zombies are more than just flesh eating creatures and this takes a dig at trying to explore how transformations destroy relationships, the community, and even the person dealing with their inevitable loss of personhood. It becomes a story analogous to knowing your loved one will die of a terminal illness in two weeks and the hardship that causes.Unfortunately this brilliant idea gets bogged down in utterly dull banality. It's. Just. So. Dull. It took me I think 15 minutes before the thought occurred to me: this must be a first time director. And it is! The pacing is so off. I decided to watch it because it was only an hour and a half (and not including credits it's less than that) so figured hey, nice quick movie to enjoy at the end of the day. Nah. What ensues is a director more focused on silent inconsistently shaky shots of characters (mostly Arnie) brooding and having some kind of internal struggle over some super important element of the story but after the hundredth artsy cut away shot or silent 20 second scene it feels like this just didn't have enough content for a full length film. It's soooo sllooowwww. I checked MULTIPLE TIMES to see how much time I had left until the end because I just wanted this to be over but I'd invested too much time to give up on it. I wanted it to redeem itself. I wanted it to lift itself up out of the bland drudge through the slow decay of Abigail Breslin's character (the titular Maggie) into something more poignant, or at least... interesting. But it doesn't. Any tension by the end and replaced with frustration. You know where this is going the moment it starts.The characters aren't interesting. Arnie plays a father figure. That's... about it. What does he like? He likes keeping his daughter around. There's a scene where they actually seem to bond with each other and are a proper father/daughter duo. The rest I don't care. All the other characters? Well I have the cast list open in a separate tab in case I feel like checking names because I don't know a single one. I can't think of any defining traits about these people besides the archetypes they're meant to fit into for the sake of narrative elements. There's the... (switches tab) step-mother? Oh I thought she was her aunt. Caroline. Who... is just present for someone to be uncomfortable about the whole situation. There's the two cops (who Arnie clumsily reveals he is close friends with through heavy handed expositionary dialogue) who warn Arnie that they'll intervene if Maggie goes too far. They're interchangeable nobodies who exist to serve a single purpose and I feel no reason why who they are affects the plot in any way.The cinematography, much like my experience for an hour and a half, is bleak. The colour grading is overdone. It doesn't so much set the tone as demand you feel sad. We get it dude, you were a scene kid when a teenager. You're very excited to show us your latest film school project. It genuinely just feels like if someone slowed down a heavy metal music video but then removed all the music, sporadically added dialogue, then slowed it down way too much. It hurts me. It hurts me so bad.This movie is meant to have a soul. It really should and I know it wants to be a deep examination of a little girl losing her humanity before her eyes and the pain it's causing her father but he just comes off as distant and flat. This was a good draft that just never got rewritten to really hit the nail of all the ideas it was going for on the head.
milosprole9
I just re-watched it and it's still one of the best horror/drama films of the decade. This is about that Maggie (Abigail Breslin) was bitten by a zombie, she gradually becomes into a zombie, Arnold cares for her until she must eventually be quarantined. It didn't deserve all the hate while people were expecting an action flick with Arnold or a full gory zombie film like 'World War Z'. It's okay if a lot people found it boring because it is a slow-burn movie, but I enjoyed it the way it is. Arnold was terrific and he gave one of his finest performances ever. I love how he played a dramatic character. Abigail Breslin was also fantastic too. It's well acted, written, directed. The cinematography and color-grading were all that great. Maggie is beautifully shot, emotional, touching, sad movie about love and loss.9.5/10
