Army of Thieves

Army of Thieves is a superior (zombie-less) prequel to Zack Snyder's original zombie fest "Army Of The Dead". Although this is a predictable Netflix production, there are enough action, twists, shallow dialogue and romance for an evening of entertaining viewing. Set in Europe, Army of Thieves is a starring vehicle for German director/writer Matthias Schweighöfer, who shines in the lead role as the nerdy and silly safecracker and in giving a European angle to the film's directing. Hans Zimmer's music score also gets a thumbs up, and so does Bernhard Jasper's cinematography work.

I wasn't expecting much from Army of Thieves, but I ended up liking this prequel spin-off more than I liked Army of the Dead. The characters are what really make this movie enjoyable. Matthias Schweighöfer, Nathalie Emmanuel, and the rest of the gang have good chemistry & entertaining dialogue. And while it does seem strange to have a zombie apocalypse NOT be the center of your story, this film was still a fun ride.

The acting was great across the line and kept me engaged. The plot was cliche, but what do you expect, its a recycled idea, but that's what makes it great. I've seen the story told time and time again, yet it still stayed engaging throughout. The cinematography is faultless especially the way the safe mechanisms are beautifully conveyed. I really enjoyed the movie whole time , a bit comical with series of bank heist . The acting and cinematography , background music all spot on.

This is good fun, and part of a series of films. I've only seen this one so far. This is a prequel to Army of the Dead.

Army of Thieves introduces us to a bank teller, Sebastian (Matthias Schweighöfer), whose obsession is safe combinations. He practices at home seeing how fast he can open a lock.

Sebastian has a YouTube video about the great locksmith Hans Wagner. Wagner created four impenetrable vaults, named after the Ring Cycle: Siegfried , Die Walküre, Das Rheingold, and Götterdämmerung.

No one knows where Gotterdammerung is, but a young woman named Gwendoline (Nathalie Emmanuel) is impressed by Sebastian's video and wants him to join her in cracking Siegfried, Die Walkure, and Das Rheingold. He agrees.

He then joins Gwendoline and her gang, Korina (Ruby O. Free), Brad (Stuart Martin), and Rolph (Guz Khan). A frustrated detective Delacroix (Jonathan Cohen) and Beatrix (Noemie Nakai) are after them, but the crooks keep beating them. Meanwhile Sebastian (who later changes his name to Ludwig Dieter) is successful in opening the first two safes and stealing a great deal of money.

For Sebastian, it's the challenge; for Gwendoline, it's making history. The money is secondary.

When they reach the third safe, trouble brews. As bad as it gets, Gwendoline's jealous boyfriend Brad makes the situation even worse.

Very enjoyable film, with an excellent performance by Schweighofer as a man who leads a dull and somewhat lonely life and is introduced to danger and adventure by Gwendoline.

The entire cast is excellent.

In Army of the Dead, which was actually made first, a group goes after the Gotterdammerung during a zombie apocalypse in Las Vegas. The zombie apocalypse is going on during Army of Thieves as well. I can't give anything else away, but if you come across these films, see Army of Thieves first.

I'll be honest I was not a fan of Army of the Dead at all. So I had absolutely no expectations watching this and I have to say it is much better than I thought it would be. They also picked one of the better characters to do a prequel on also.

It has some problems don't get me wrong. I thought it was quite predictable at times and the plot never really went out of its way to surprise you. I was also a little surprised by the amount of action involved, what I mean by this is that there wasn't much. However the film did really keep my interest and the suspense was built well.

The characters i thought on the whole were very good. I think they missed a trick on a couple of them. The driver in particular. He had a good sense of humour and was likeable, but he just wasn't really in the film enough to make any sort of impact. But overall they did a good job of making these heist people really likeable and making you root for them.

The ending was much better also. I thought the ending of Army of the Dead was absolutely awful, but this rounded up significantly better. In terms of prequels the ending was spot on.

But yeah, overall I'll give it a 7/10. I ultimately enjoyed watching it, the characters were fun and I was intrigued the entire time. Sure it's absolutely not going to blow your socks off, but it's entertaining and much MUCH better than Army of the Dead. Feel like they learnt from the mistakes a bit.