Army of Thieves
Directed by Matthias Schweighöfer
★★
Army of Thieves. (L-R) Stuart Martin as Brad, Nathalie Emmanuel as Gwendoine, Ruby O Fee as Korina in Army of Thieves. Cr. Stanislav Honzik/ Netflix © 2021
Attempting to start a universe all his own (apart from his hand in the DCEU), Zack Snyder lends his name as a producer to Netflix’s new Army of Thieves, a prequel to the Snyder directed Army of the Dead earlier this year (itself a spiritual sequel to Snyder’s 2004 directorial debut Dawn of the Dead). Thieves, however, is in an entirely different genre than its predecessors, positioning itself as a heist film, rather than a horror/action flick.
Thieves follows Army of the Dead standout Ludwig Dieter (Matthias Schweighöfer, who also acts as the director), who we find out is actually named Sebastian, as he goes from a lonely lower-level bank teller that posts to his YouTube channel with no views or subscribers, to a member of a team of jewel thieves that recruit him to break into some of the most difficult safes to crack in the world, all while trying not to get caught by interpol. The team is filled with your typical archetypes, the goofy driver Rolph (Guz Khan), the fiery hacker Korina (Ruby O. Fee), and of course the hot-headed and aptly named meat-bag Brad Cage (Stuart Martin) who is in a tumultuous relationship with the apple of Sebastian’s eye Gwendoline (played by a kick-ass Nathalie Emmanuel). And while this may sound like the familiar formula for an action-packed heist film a la the Ocean’s films, the film ultimately lacks the necessary energy to become fully engrossing on any level.
The choice to put Sebastian front and center in the film is an odd one, at the very least. While he is one of the more charming and likable aspects of Army of the Dead, he works best playing off Bautista's stoicism. In this film, positioned in a lead role, his over-the-top antics and nuances are considerably more annoying, as is his forced romance with Gwendoline.
Tonally, the film is akin to other Snyder films, as in not quite as funny as it wants to be, while also falling flat emotionally. Thieves also makes it apparent that we are in the same world that the zombie outbreak takes place in, as in the previous film, but the way it weaves this element into the plot feels ham-fisted and, honestly, really doesn’t work, especially when it attempts to add meta-references to the heist genre as a whole.
My biggest grievance with the film, however, is that the entire element that the story is woven around, that of Sebastian having to crack these difficult to open safes, is entirely uninteresting. The film builds these set pieces up to be something poetic and triumphant, but the lackadaisical way in which they handle these “feats” are just so utterly prosaic.
The film does have its strengths, particularly Emmanuel, who gets to do most of the ass kicking in the film. It's good to see her get the chance to breakaway from playing second fiddle to other, stronger characters as she does in Game of Thrones and The Fast and Furious Saga. Thieves also boasts a strong score composed by Hans Zimmer and Steve Mazzaro that harkens back to the previous films of the series while sprinkling in German influence and soars to heights the film can never quite reach.
Army of Thieves feels kind of like this universe’s Rogue One, and like that film, it backs itself into a narrative corner. Pair that with the film's other issues, and, ultimately, what should be a fun, breezy outing, feels more like doing 2 hours worth of chores.
