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Marvel Zombies (2025)

★★½ — Marvel Zombies (2025)

Before the Disney+ animated series arrived, Marvel Zombies had already attracted fan filmmakers working well outside any official Marvel budget. This two-minute short, made for around $1,200, is a grassroots effort from director Scotty Fields (who also appears on screen) and effects artist James Ojala, putting practical creature work at the centre of a very stripped-back adaptation. It draws directly from the original comic run, launched by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Sean Phillips in 2005, which reimagined the Marvel universe as a flesh-eating nightmare and became one of the publisher's more unexpected cult properties of that decade. As fan films go, the constraints are obvious, but the ambition (and the budget, frankly) tells its own story.

Marvel Zombies (2024), the new Disney+ animated series, is a frustrating contradiction. It's a show that should work but never quite does. It’s based on one of Marvel’s most gloriously twisted alternate universes: a world where a zombie virus has consumed Earth’s mightiest heroes, creating super zombies I guess. The animation is slick, detailed, and surprisingly gory, definitely pushing the envelope for Disney+, with dismemberments, viscera, and decay. And yes, I love zombie media. The premise is ripe with potential: superhero power meets ravenous hunger, moral collapse, desperate last stands. But despite the mature tone and R-rated visuals, the execution feels… off. The voice acting is flat, almost childish, like it was recorded for a Saturday morning block rather than a dark, apocalyptic horror story. The dialogue lacks weight, the pacing drags, and the emotional stakes never land. You’re watching super-soldiers and sorcerers tear each other apart, but it all plays out with the energy of a mid-tier kids’ show. It’s not badly made, it just lacks soul. The gore is cool, the concept is strong, but the direction, tone, and performances drain it of tension and horror. It ends up feeling like a missed opportunity. Worth a watch for hardcore fans or zombie completists, but don’t expect the brutal, existential dread the source material deserves. A solid visual package wrapped around something strangely lifeless.

Rating: ★★½ | Year: 2025 | Watched: 2025-10-03

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