Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 3 Review: The Music and The Message Matters, Not The Story
Greg Ehrhardt, OnScreen Blog Columnist
This summer, my 8-year-old daughter attended theatre camp for the first time. The camp cast 24 5–12-year-olds into a production of “The Little Mermaid”, where they rehearsed and put on a full-blown production in under 2 weeks. The performance involved monotone deliveries, flubbed lines, and off-key singing, to put it mildly.
I loved every second of it.
Why? The kids put everything they had into it, and the play was performed with such innocence it put new meaning into the story of “The Little Mermaid”.
I thought about that performance when watching the highly anticipated Disney release “Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 3”, which released July 15th. No, the movie is not the equivalent of 10-year-olds acting “The Little Mermaid”. But watching Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 3 and trying to review it like a traditional movie is a futile exercise.
They’re not trying to win any awards. I’m not even sure they’re trying to make a good movie.
They’re trying to have fun, and have the audience have fun with them. On that front, the movie succeeds, even with a paper-thin story and not much to speak of when it comes to acting performances.
This is why I chuckle when I read reviews of this franchise which evaluates the story-telling choices the movie makes, or whether it’s a good movie or not.
Roger Ebert said (paraphrasing) a movie should not be judged against a singular industry wide standard, but whether it succeeds at what it is trying to do.
That’s what I (and frankly every other person who reviews this movie) will do here.
What is Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 3 trying to do? It is trying to make fun music, have good dance choreography, and make a story elementary school kids will enjoy.
It succeeds on all fronts, just like the 1st two movies.
The Music
It doesn’t deviate from the franchise formula much, to a bit of a fault. The first two movies showcased some different styles, while always staying in the pop zone. Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 2 featured a (sort of) rap battle in the song “I’m winning”, while mixing in a couple ballads and some other catchy pop music. With this movie, the style is pretty much all pop-synthesizer based tunes, in a way that the songs all initially blend in your head, making it heard to remember one specific song.
That said, all the songs have a good hook and will find a place in your memory, probably supplanting whatever grocery list you had that day or your aunt’s birthday. There are two particularly fun songs:
“Ain’t No Doubt About It” and “Come On Out”.
I particularly liked “Come On Out” because it was THIS close to being a great creepy Halloween themed song but played it too safe by the chorus to reach pantheon heights.
I wrote earlier how the soundtrack didn’t deviate from the franchise formula much. Unfortunately, in one instance, it repeated the exact same formula, when it (slightly) remixed the first movie’s classic hit “Someday” for the 4th time in 3 movies.
“Someday” is a nice, sweet song. We ranked it high in our “Z-O-M-B-I-E-S song ranking list” (which will be updated soon with this third movie’s soundtrack, bookmark it and check back in a week).
It doesn’t deserve to be sung 4 times in 3 movies.
The whole soundtrack is enjoyable though, I don’t think there’s a skippable song in the list (your mileage will vary, like everyone’s tastes will vary with any given song, so don’t @ me). But after listening to the soundtrack several times, I don’t think there’s a single song that rides with “Bamm!” or “We Own The Night” for elite level discussion.
Choreography
The dance choreography was excellent, all the way through. I’m an amateur when it comes to evaluating dance technique, so I won’t space here pretending I’m some authority, but what I look for is how complicated the routines look, how much effort they put in, and how much fun they look like they’re having. This movie succeeds on all three fronts, there shouldn’t be any disappointment as long as you’re an amateur dance enthusiast like me
The Story
As mentioned earlier, there’s not much to write about when it comes to the plot. Aliens come to earth, and they’re looking for a map that guides them to their new home. That element of the story works pretty well in this movie: there are some solid “fish out of water” gags, and some good messaging as one would expect about accepting outsiders and embracing differences.
There’s another plot about Zed getting into college, and Addison discovering who she really is. Yes, the post-credits tease at the end of “Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 2” pays off, but those story elements are really thin, even by Disney Channel movie standards, and I don’t think was captivating on any level. The story plays out exactly as you would predict even having just watched the trailer, so don’t expect any Game of Thrones style twists.
Again, not the point of the viewing experience, so we can leave that alone as is.
Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 3 did make one interesting comment towards the end of the movie, so interesting I’m not convinced they realized what they wrote.
*Spoilers follow, if you care about that sort of thing for Disney Channel movies*
Towards the end of the movie, we have the following dialogue between Addison and the aliens when they realize Earth was their utopia all along:
(Addison): “Conflict isn’t always bad. Being challenged sometimes pushes us to be better
(A-Spen): “Harmony isn’t silence. Unity isn’t sameness. Love is powerful, it can handle disagreements.
(Addison) :“I know where Grandma wanted us to live. The most perfectly imperfect place there is”
What followed this dialogue was a replay of the various hateful confrontations between the humans, zombies, and werewolves.
I’ll be honest, I was struck by this dialogue, not because it wasn’t something I’ve told to my daughter about how life can be messy sometimes, and that doesn’t mean something is wrong.
I was struck by it because it really applies to our domestic politics now, more than ever.
I’ll preface this by saying I’m way too online when it comes to politics, and I willingly expose myself to pedantic, juvenile arguments on both sides of the political aisle.
One of those arguments is about how we’re more divided than ever before. That might be true, but it doesn’t, by itself, mean something is wrong with our politics.
It is okay to argue, it is ok to be passionate, or even heated sometimes, about what you believe in, as long as there’s love of “something” behind it, and if you make progress as a result of it. You don’t have to win, and you shouldn’t try to silence dissent or make everyone be like you. A place can be wildly imperfect, but still be the best place to be.
Again, I don’t think this movie was trying to make a statement about politics, and you can think I’m wildly off base in my reading of this dialogue. But this movie made me think about politics in a different way as a result.
Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 3 showed that sometimes, a movie doesn’t have to be “good”, to be worth watching, just like, well, kids’ theatre camp.
Two final notes on Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 3:
1) There was another interesting commentary about college admissions, where Zed was so worried about being exceptional enough to be admitted to Mountain College that he even did a whole song about it. The moral of that sub-plot ended up being that college admissions is unfair in its notion that it only wants exceptional students when everyone is exceptional in some way. Again, not a notion that is unique, but unique in the way that it was applied. I never thought about that idea when it came to college admissions.
2) I was bummed when I saw that Kylee Russell was basically sidelined (by her own choice) in the movie, being relegated to off-set interactions with the rest of the character. Eliza was always the 2nd best character in the story with her sass, so seeing her in a completely different set and relegated to being seen through an iPad much of the time did not help the movie. But considering the movie set up a 4th installment, maybe she’ll get one more chance. We can only hope.