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PLOT: As zombies wreak havoc in Nevada, in Germany, Ludwig Dieter (Matthias Schweighofer) works as a financial institution clerk by day, posting obnoxious Youtube movies about his safecracking prowess by night time. When a mysterious girl (Nathalie Emmanuel) contacts him with a proposal to place his expertise to the check in a collection of heists, Dieter finds himself a part of an unlikely group of thieves. However is there honour amongst thieves?
REVIEW: Military of Thieves is a reasonably nifty prequel to Military of the Useless in that it does one thing distinctive. It operates in a unique style house from its predecessor. Whereas that film was a horror-action flick, it is a conventional heist film and a strong one at that. Written by Military of the Useless‘s Shay Hatten, producer Zack Snyder took an enormous gamble by betting that audiences would need to see extra of Dieter, nevertheless it seems he’s an unlikely and massively likeable hero.
Matthias Schweighofer not solely will get to play the lead right here but in addition directs (it’s noteworthy that he has a protracted historical past as a director in his native Germany). He’s made a reasonably slick, usually humorous heist flick that slyly mocks the style’s conventions whereas nonetheless indulging in them. You get to be taught much more about Ludwig Dieter right here, with that not even his actual title for a begin. It fills you in on his background and why he’s so eager to hitch Bautista’s crew in Military of the Useless, as he already has a protracted historical past with the legendary secure he’s been employed to crack. We be taught right here that it’s one is a collection of safes which have been on his radar his entire life and have lengthy been an obsession of his.
As within the final movie, Dieter is an unconventional hero. Unapologetically wimpy, he’s additionally very likeable and straightforward to root for. Nathalie Emmanuel ably helps him because the mysterious Gwendolyne. She runs the titular Military of Thieves, which incorporates Ruby O. Payment’s Korina (the hacker), Guz Khan’s Rolf (the motive force) and Stuart Martin’s Brad Cage (the muscle). Emmanuel will get to be heart stage right here and dominate the action-movie heroics, along with her exhibiting off some badass preventing strikes as he disables guards and mixes it up with the police. Of the crew, Martin’s Cage is Dieter’s romantic rival for the affections of Gwendoline, who appears unusually charmed by the geeky safecracker.
Netflix put a reasonably penny into this prequel, with it fairly slick and polished. Nonetheless, this was no burn-off prequel. As an alternative, it’s a serious movie with its personal distinct model, with Schweighofer and DP Bernhard Jasper opting to shoot in a 2:20:1 side ratio as a substitute of Snyder’s flat 1:78:1 model within the authentic. One factor value noting – there are only a few zombies right here. Whereas the zombie outbreak remains to be occurring, at this level, Europe has been largely untouched, even when persons are nonetheless freaking out about the truth that the lifeless appear to be rising. Dieter’s proven to have recurring zombie nightmares that foreshadow his final destiny in Military of the Useless, with some enjoyable call-outs to that movie too.
What’s fascinating right here is that I really feel many individuals will favor this to its predecessor, because it’s much more targeted (operating only a hair over two hours) and tells a contained story. Army of the Dead had some appreciable leaps in narrative logic, however Thieves, for lack of a greater phrase, is considerably extra plausible in some methods. It has has an amazing rating by Hans Zimmer and Steve Mazzaro, which pays homage to Dieter’s German origins, with him having a major theme that sounds a bit like a germanic march. There’s additionally a great deal of Wagner labored into the rating, with Zimmer integrating the operas the varied safes are named after as Dieter cracks them.
General, I had a blast with Military of Thieves. Whereas it doesn’t have any zombie motion, it’s nonetheless a jaunty, power check film that ought to win a number of followers as soon as it hits Netflix later this week. Heck, even when you hated Military of the Useless, you may dig this one.
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