07/13/09 - Army of Darkness

Army of Darkness (1992, 81 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106308/

The Evil Dead wasn't that good but Evil Dead II was really enjoyable. So I decided to finish up the trilogy and watch Army of Darkness.

As you might recall if you just watched Evil Dead II, Ash (Bruce Campbell) has just been transported back in time after (somewhat) fending off the Dead with the help of a friend. In Army of Darkness, Ash rises to the rank of leader of a rag-tag group of knights previously led by Lord Arthur (Marcus Gilbert). Leading them against the Dead, he must also claim the Necronomicon so that the Wiseman (Ian Abercrombie) can find a spell to transport him back to his time period.

Campbell again carries the film by himself. Even more so this time as the supporting cast is completely forgettable. Though Ash does a fine job when not compared to the other movies, in this one, his character is completely changed and too tough in my opinion. This change isn't as bad as that done by Michael Corleone in The Godfather: Part III, but the switch in character is still noticeably different and hurts the film, I think.

The sad thing about Army of Darkness is that it seems to completely abandon everything that made Evil Dead II so good. There's way too much humor, jokes, and one-liners and essentially zero over-the-top gore and violence. There's one scene that's gory, but that's it. Further, the medieval setting just doesn't seem to work for a film of this sort.

Overall, I gave this film a 4/10. It lacks the magic and the spirit of Evil Dead II. Having seen The Evil Dead so long ago I really don't think I can compare it to that (or at least not fairly), but I can say that there exists a completely different vibe which doesn't work that well when compared to the two previous installments.