Nerds That Geek Movie Review – ‘Dead Rising: Watchtower’

Written by Scott Edwards 

​Since video games are becoming much more cinematic than they have ever been before, there may not be many big screen adaptations of your favorite game that you would want to see in theaters, and the box office results of video games turned into movies backs that up. I think that the Resident Evil franchise is the only one that's figured out how to resonate with audiences since it's been around forever, and it really is the only game/movie franchise that I've made a point to follow. That is until now because I have seen Dead Rising: Watchtower, and it has the only thing that matters in video games and movies, zombies, and they are fantastic.

Wanting to get a new story that will get him more hits on his website, Chase Carter is reporting inside of the town of East Mission which will soon be under an evacuation order due to a zombie attack that has previously taken place there. The rest of the states are not happy with this idea since everyone in the town has been exposed to the virus and nobody should allow this to be unleashed on the country. Talking to a couple different people around the medical tents, Chase turns his attention to the beautiful Crystal who is not happy with how anything has been going in her town. Wanting to leave the town would not be out of the question, but as time has shown, nothing that the government ever does is the right decision. 

While inside the medical tent, Chase gets some footage of the zombie drug, Zombrex being administered to the infected patients, but it does not seem to be taking effect as quickly as it should. Watching patients have violent seizures and turn into the flesh eating machines that the drug is supposed to subdue, Chase has the big time story he's been looking for and it will most certainly go viral. With the virus becoming resilient to the drug, the folks at F.E.Z.A. believe that it has mutated and could be transmitted by air. Shutting down the only exit out of the town, Jordan, Chase’s camera woman was able to escape the outbreak, but is stuck in quarantine until she gets a clean bill of health. While on the outskirts of town, she is able to hear more reports about what the government is up to and when she hears that they are ready to firebomb the town, she fears for her friend who is stuck on the inside.

Being there when the zombie outbreak took place is going to be great for Chase and he is looking to capitalize on it, but when word comes out that the virus might be airborne, he has cannot hold his tongue. Calling his old news station and reporting that he and two others are not infected, he has another job now, to keep an eye on the inside of the town. But Chase is in for a surprise when he finds out that Crystal is infected and when she takes the Zombrex, she does not turn into a flesh eater. Now knowing a little bit more about what is going on, Chase needs to get his story out to the masses before the entire town is destroyed for a bad batch of zombie drugs. But the streets are not only paved with zombies and looters, they also have troops that have been told to shoot everyone on sight, no matter the situation. 

I remember playing Dead Rising 2 and I might need to pick it up again because it is my favorite zombie killing game out there. The main overlap between the game and the movie, is the whole 'having to build your own weapons thing' and that is just beyond fantastic. I enjoyed watching Chase start to understand that he will not be able to get out of this situation on his own and since Crystal knows how to get out of tough situations, they paired up nicely as a team. You can always find power in numbers, but that is usually not the case in a zombie outbreak, it only takes one bite and then you are screwed. The addition of Frank West helping to add color commentary to the news reports is genius and with the best job in the world, telling people how to survive the outbreak, he is beyond hilarious and I really hope to see him in the field killing zombies for the right reasons someday. Stay Scared.

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