Army of Thieves Review

Here’s my Army of Thieves review which stars Matthias Schweighöfer, Nathalie Emmanuel, Ruby O. Fee, Stuart Martin, Guz Khan and more. The film was also directed by Matthias Schweighöfer and written by Zack Snyder. Now streaming on Netflix!

Army of Thieves is set before the events of Army of the Dead with the fan-favorite character Dieter taking over as the main character for the film. In this movie we meet Ludwig Dieter, a skilled safecracker living a mundane life until he meets Nathalie Emmanuel’s Gwendoline Starr (Game of Thrones) who ropes him into a life of adventure and crime.

Check out the trailer below:

If they had marketed this with zombies this would have really turned out bad. Good thing they decided to say that the film is mostly a caper/ heist film with a bit of character development for Schweighofer’s Dieter character. I actually found this movie light-hearted set in beautiful locations including Paris.

It does follow the formula for any decent heist film with a set piece introduction for the different members of the crew; the only fresh thing here is the gravitas of acting and dialogue that Dieter brings here. Oh and the fact that they actually reference heist movies here. They telegraphed early on who will be the antagonist in the film but they did good when it comes to making them at the very least tolerable at the start.

Sadly, the two bros were definitely 2 Dimensional characters. Ruby O. Fee’s Korina is however a breath of fresh air. Plus she did more here so she’s got a little bit more backstory and more “life” in the movie.

This is another project that shines a good light on Nathalie Emmanuel. She’s really pretty and she’s got this expressive facial reaction that makes her pleasant to watch in the film. She also has good screen chemistry with Schweighofer. They just look good together.

If you’re looking for zombies here well the sad thing is that there’s barely any in Army of Thieves. Dieter does get nightmares about the Las Vegas based zombies and a really creepy news report and that’s it. But the film still has substance and brings more to the world building that Snyder plans for his trilogy. There’s references to Bly Tanaka and his mythical vaults including the Gotterdamerung which was the main focus for Dave Bautista’s character in Army of the Dead.

Sadly, while there are references, the really juicy details and easter eggs are few and far in between. I was really hoping that viewers would be getting more clues about the zombies or at least the timeloop theory but that’s nowhere to be seen.

Shift your expectations and you’ll definitely enjoy the film. But think of it as an action movie based on the “Army of the Dead” and you might be disappointed; there’s hardly any action scene here now that I write this in hindsight. The only big one was the bank robbery scene with “Brad Cage”. That was good in terms of cinematography and flow too. Maybe its just not the director’s cup of tea or maybe Zack Snyder designed the movie to take the backseat.

8/10

So that’s my Army of Thieves review! Did you like the film? Leave a comment below and follow me on Twitter at @thefanboyseo!