"#Alive: A Zombie movie for Modern times."

 "#Alive: A Zombie movie for Modern times."

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

Plot: When a gamer wakes up to find that the world is plagued by zombies and he somehow needs to survive this new world.

For those who have not watched the movie yet spoilers ahead. This is just a reaction/review of the movie weeks after the fact that I have watched it.(because stuffs to do hahahah)

The Good:

In my opinion this movie makes good news of the technology that is available today via the internet. It makes sense that this would be how survivors are tracked or at least the possibility of rescuing those still alive in the four walls of their homes.

It shows that internet and social media will always be a part of our daily lives and it also shows that the networks of Korea can withstand a zombie apocalypse. If this happened in our country I would not be so sure.

The use of a drone is something that has not been used in a zombie movie before. The series "The walking dead" used a drone to lead zombies away from the Saviours Sanctuary but here the drone is used both for surveillance and weapon. It makes sense given that the Walking Dead is theorized to happen in the early 2000's and this movie is taking place in the more immediate present.

I am a big fan of zombie movies and have been looking forward to where the koreans would take the genre after Train to Busan. Here the zombies are still as deadly though not as tough as the zombies in the latter film. They have managed to interweave emotion and the weight of people's decisions in this movie.

I am not going to spoil any of those spots here though.

The Bad:

There have been backlash on the internet that this movie has too much ad placement and when you look at the company that produced it. Lotte it will start to make sense. Let us not be naive and say that this is merely for arts sake. Of course this is a giant corporation that is spending money to make money and what better way to promote some of it's product by putting them right there. The scene did not take away from any of the emotional or action movements and were done in a lull of the film where the characters were trying to get to know each other. It makes sense that they were asking about a brand that they might know in real life. What would have been ugly is if the characters were fighting and they were hitting a zombie with a hammer and going "wow this hammer from Lotte sure is tough so and so". You see none of that here. So I dont understand the fuss. I could see the fuss if the main characters were choosing between a drone made by lotte and a drone not made by them. Again does not happen here.

The Ugly:

Well parts of human nature. Like our tendency to give up or the other extreme to treat real life as a game. "Time to go farming" to paraphrase the main character here.

Also that couple at the end of the movie where it becomes apparent that the love you feel for other half would lead you to murder people. 

The end is somewhat predictable but the zombie ride is still worth the price of admission.