DVD review: The Vanguard (2008)

The year is 2015. The last known oil fields have been lost to global war. Overpopulation and famine have plunged our planet into chaos. But deep in the wilderness, one desperate survivor now finds himself hunted by corporate kill squads, sought by the Resistance, and pursued by hordes of rage-crazed zombies. In a world ruled by murder, madness and cannibalistic carnage, will humanity’s last hope be measured in bloodshed? The Vanguard is written and directed Matthew Hope. The acting is decent for the most part but Ray Bullock Jr is very good as Max Carter who speaks to his dead father in voice-over narration. The movie is nicely shot and edited, the scenes in the forest looks great. There are some good action scenes, nicely shot and staged. The soundtrack is quite effective. The pacing is perhaps a bit slow in some parts, the flick actually bordering to becoming boring. I like that the main character Max sports a pair hatchets and a homemade javelin instead of the ever present firearms, it´s always much cooler when they have to get close up and dirty in my opinion. The plot is decent even if a bit pretentious. It´s also confusing and just plain incoherent in some parts. There are a couple of gory scenes, it´s a mix of practical make-up and some bad computer rendered fx. I didn´t find the "zombies" aka Biosyns especially scary or menacing, the design has it flaws as they mostly look like they have contact-lenses and some bodypaint.  No T & A in this.
This review is based on the swedish region 2 DVD release from Cinematic Vision.
 Rating: 1½ out of 7. It´s watchable, I`ve seen worse, seen better.

/JL