When 28 Days Later was released in 2002, it revived a zombie genre that had been "dead" for about 20 years. That movie, with the concept of fast zombies, added a lot of thrills to the genre, and it reached its height in 2004 with Synder's remake of Dawn of the Dead, a mainstream Hollywood slick production with a lot of good sepecial effects, and Wright's Shaun of the Dead, which showed that it can be mixed with comedy. Thus, when Zombieland was released in 2009, the market had been over-saturated with all sorts of options, and the tepid initial response seemed to indicate that it will be lost in the shuffle. While it was not an overwhelming success, it received positive reviews, and the way it played around with the genre and even poked fun of itself made it stand out from its contemporaries. It reached a very good balance between humour and drama, the actors, led by the veteran Woody Harrelson, and featured an Oscar-nominated child actress and two up-and-comers, are all very good and have very good chemistry with one another, and the world it introduced is very fascinating. It was all ripe for a sequel, and this time, 10 years late, there were quite a bit of fanfare for Zombieland: Double Tab.
Unfortunately, it becomes a good example of a missed opportunity. While it largely followed the same formula of its predecessor, as the humour is the same, the characters have continuity with the first movie, and it expanded on the Zombieland universe, the world outside the cinema has changed in the last ten years. Suddenly, the same humour is no longer fresh, and while the actors' chemistry is still there, and they are even better at their craft now, as the two up-and-comers now have became an Oscar-nominee and an Oscar-winner, respectively, it is blatantly clear that Stone and Eisenberg, in particular, have outgrown their characters. Quite frankly, the characters are just too easy for them to play now, and the plot do not allow them to add anything more to their characters. As a result, there are times where it feels like they are just with the motions.
Honestly, there is nothing wrong with the movie. It is a worthy sequel, as it is still quite fun, and it kept the spirit of the franchise, but it just took too long to get off the ground. If it was released even half a decade ago, it would have received a better grade. Now, everything has changed, and what worked before is rather stale. As a fan, I did not regret my decision to see it, but I would definitely temper my expectations.
6/10
You completely misrepresent what the writer finds "worrying," which is the trend toward boy versus girl films. The author posits that there is emerging a gaping gender divide between men and women's film, a gender divide that may have in part been caused by the #Me, Too movement. He worries further (like a fox worries about the welfare of chickens) that people of colour will be slighted this year because of the "him" versus "her" thing. At no point does he say what you attribute to him as saying.
