Land of the Dead was a solid but not stellar follow-up to George Romero’s classic trilogy. It was still light years better than the shrill, no-frills Day of the Dead, but failed to live up to the standards of the original Dawn (inevitably), or even to some of the more innovative homages like Return of the Living Dead, Dellamore Dellamorte, Wild Zero, or Shaun of the Dead.

To me, the failure was one of casting and scripting, rather than plotting or effects. The characters played by John Leguizamo, Simon Baker, and Asia Argento were simply not interesting, entertaining or human enough to anchor the plot, and I found myself much more interested in minor characters like the female driver of Dead Reckoning and the paramilitary man with the sumo physique. Not to mention Eugene Clark’s performance as Big Daddy which, perhaps intentionally, overshadowed that of all the “human” players. Given that, I’m a little concerned by the plan to have the sequel pick up where the last left off, with the same characters. I hope Romero carefully considers a shake-up, or at least giving Baker and Argento’s characters some dimensions beyond “tough” and “caring.” Regardless, any Romero-helmed zombie film will be worth seeing.

::: Romero says new Dead film on the way
Empire Online, November 28, 2005