Description from IMDB:
The personalities of two former baseball players clash as
they traverse the rural back roads of a post-plague New
England teeming with the undead.
My thoughts:
More than anything, this movie really made me think about
the differences in personality and how they would mesh in a zombie-infested
world. Ben – a realist – is clearly
unhinged, but he seems to be adapting quite well. He even appears to be enjoying himself.
Mickey – an optimist – seems defeated by it all. I felt that it was only a matter of time
before Mickey died, most likely as the result of just giving up.
I could identify more with Ben, but I doubt I would ever do
a lot of things he does.
These differences in the characters also manifested itself with
Annie. They happen to hear Annie over
their walkie-talkies. She lives in some
kind of zombie-free community with a group of others (named “The Orchard”). It’s a concept that’s not unfamiliar to
anyone who has seen many zombie movies.
But we never actually see it here.
We hear Annie say things like, “It’s not what you think it is.” I really loved the idea of throwing a
familiar zombie trope like that in here but never actually showing it.
It’s Ben & Mickey’s responses to that information that
tell us about their characters. After
Annie tells them to leave it alone, Mickey is still obsessed. He can’t stop thinking about it. It’s a haven for him. A place to sleep without having to worry
about being attacked. Somewhere he can
stop running. However, Ben just stops
thinking about it. He’s happy with his
life. He doesn’t need a safe zone. He’s fine right where he is.
Seriously though, Ben is probably a psychopath. I don’t like that I
identify with him.
I didn’t really like either of the two characters. But maybe that was the point. After all, they didn’t really seem to like
each other, either (unless they’re drunk, which I may need to try). When Mickey is trying to convince Annie to
let him join their community, he gives up Ben without much thought. “We were ballplayers. He was a starting catcher. I was out in the bullpen. We never hung out in the same circles. I hardly even know him.”
Tale as old as time…
I suppose that’s what the real zombie apocalypse would be
like. We wouldn’t necessarily be
traveling with our loved ones. In a
perfect world we would, but a zombie apocalypse doesn’t happen in a perfect
world. In the event of a real zombie
apocalypse, we would be stuck with whoever we happened to be with at the time
of the outbreak, and, eventually, whoever survived from that group. That means you have a better chance of trying
to survive with your annoying coworker rather than your loved ones. The good news is that it would be easier to
kill one of your co-survivors once they become infected. The bad news is that you may want to off
yourself before it gets to that point.
I’m torn as to whether I really liked this movie or
not. There were parts I really liked,
but there were also a ton of extremely slow moments. For instance, we watch them brush their teeth
for a full minute. While I understand
that it’s a big deal for them (they probably haven’t brushed their teeth in a
long time), I didn’t necessarily feel the need to watch the entire
teeth-brushing process.
That’s a problem that’s indicative of the entire movie. It tends to linger on shots for too
long. And most of them are boring,
run-of-the-mill shots in the first place.
Looking out the window while driving.
Sitting around in chairs. There’s
really not much going on throughout a lot of this movie, yet the camera lingers
too long on most of it. I’m not begging
for action, but I tend to get tired of watching scene after scene where nothing
happens, yet having the camera linger on each of the scenes.
While I understand this is most likely what it would be like
to live in a zombie apocalypse (a little bit of action, but not a ton going on
the majority of the time), that doesn’t mean I want to watch it. When the apocalypse comes, I’ll deal with the
minutiae of my own life. I don’t
necessarily need to live through someone else’s.
I also have some major problems with the end, but I don’t
really want to get into spoilers here.
If I do end up getting into that, I’ll do it in a future post. I’ve been wanting to get my “What Comes Next”
series off the ground, anyway.
That’s not to say it was a completely boring movie. There were a lot of slow moments, but there
were also some really great scenes. There
is a fantastic scene in an apple orchard.
There’s no dialogue (a song plays the entire time), but it’s perfect. Everything I would want in the event of a
zombie apocalypse. Running wild. Having fun.
Doing anything you want to do, because there’s no one around to tell you
that you can’t. After watching these two
guys bicker for the last hour, it’s good to see them having some fun and
smashing the hell out of some rotten apples with a bat. It’s an amazing scene. And the music is terrific.
I was also a huge fan of the scene where they get drunk in
their car. Because apparently having fun
during a zombie apocalypse is something that is appealing to me.
The more I think about it, the more I think I really like
this. It’s not perfect, but there’s far
more good than bad here. If you can get
past the lingering camera shots, you’ll find there’s a lot to like here. It’s something different, and I like
that. And the soundtrack is
dynamite.
For my final thought, I’ll turn to a quote by Ben:
“Don’t you think we got enough to worry about without having
to worry about each other?” The central
question of every zombie movie, going back to Night of the Living Dead: who should we fear the most, zombies or
humans?
Rating: 4/5
The Battery is currently
available on VOD through iTunes, Amazon, Vudu and others. Check the
website.
Here’s the trailer:
Here are some extra posters that I enjoyed:
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