Review of Army of Thieves (2021) by Spartan_117 — 08 Nov 2021

Army of Thieves (2021) is an unexpected but welcome surprise. It's a prequel to Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead and focuses on the character of Ludwig Dieter, the genius safecracker, who is recruited by a group of thieves for his expertise on several high-level heists.

Now, I did not like Army of the Dead so it's weird that the main actor i.e Matthias Schweighöfer himself directed this movie and it's a lot more competently made and enjoyable than what Zack Snyder did with a Vegas zombie movie...

Anyway, the group of thieves is a cliched but entertaining lot as is a lot of elements in the movie. There is a good level of self-awareness that pokes fun at the heist genre and at itself while doing the said things it is poking fun at. Sure it's not consistent throughout nor is it well-executed all the time but it does work for a lot of the movie and that made it enjoyable.

Ludwig Dieter was one of the few "characters" from Army of the Dead that I did like so getting to know A LOT more of him was genuinely interesting. Matthias Schweighöfer gave a fun and endearing performance that makes you care for him and while I'm not a genius nor am I socially awkward of that level, he was still oddly relatable.

The mythology surrounding and involving the safes that were to be targeted and the appreciation for the craftmanship by Dieter was another thing that I quite enjoyed in the movie. Gave it an extra edge over typical heist movies as well as the fact that there are three instead of the usual one. The sacrifice had to be made for less meat on individual heists, though.

The cinematography was dynamic and pretty good. The soundtrack was pleasing and had some great tracks that fitted the material of the movie well.

Yeah, there are flaws and some stupid stuff, particularly in the third act but compared to Army of the Dead, it's nowhere near as bad that it ruins the movie.

Overall, it was a fun time, much better than expected since I was going in with Army of the Dead level of expectations. The main character is engaging and the group is fun enough. Also, the Interpol side of things was stupid and hilarious and I loved it. Whether you liked Army of the Dead or not, I'd recommend giving this a watch, it's certainly better. Not an amazing movie by any means but gets the job done. And if I were to rate it, I'd give it a 6.5/10.