Review: KL Zombi

Synopsis: Klang Valley has been invaded by zombies. And it's up to Nipis (Zizan Razak) and the gang to stop it from getting worse.

Review: I've read few Fixi novels now, but both 'Pecah' and 'Zombijaya' are not on the list. I think it's quite an advantage for me to walk into cinema hall without zero knowledge of a movie, in term of not knowing the entire storyline from the source/book, any twist or the ending. Thus, the element of surprise (and maybe the excitement) is preserved during the view. And I knew that both novels are getting good reviews based on what I read online and heard from friends so that's why I expected a good watch from both movies.

Movie 'Pecah' was... okay.

And yesterday, I decided to watch KL Zombi, an adaptation from the novel Zombijaya. What did I expect? I expected an average Malay comedy, after watching the uninteresting trailer, but a convincing and interesting story's development throughout.

I was right! It's another average Malay comedy. And I was wrong. It's an unconvincing story about zombies wandering around the dirtiness of KL (of course it's not caused by the zombies! haha). I was left disappointed overall. We can say it's not an original because there are already a lot of zombie flicks made before. But why didn't try to make it a bit special or different from others. I noticed it 'copied' Sherlock Holmes'; the slo-mo pre-fighting scene, Guy Ritchie's style. Completed with the familiar narration.

KL Zombi's bonus scene: Shirtless Robert Downey Jr.

And the most obvious movie I can relate KL Zombi to is Zombieland. Duh... And a little bit of Warm Bodies (Faezah Elai in this scene rocked, though). Okay, put aside the originality of its direction. Let's go to...

The casting; Zizan Razak made a decent Nipis. But man, at least contain his antics. It's like I was watching Zizan, not Nipis. Others like Izara Aishah, Zain Hamid & Faezah Elai were good too. Siti Saleha? Emm... okayla. Comel. The downside goes to that kid. No further comment. He's just a kid. Reserving my ill-feeling towards the ones who cast him.

 

The most focused zombie.

The major problem of this movie is the plot's continuity accompanied by some unnecessary scenes and loopholes. What's up with that exaggerating 'rempit' scene at the beginning? The illogical scene when Nipis played hockey with 'friends' without noticing that they were actually zombies? I know it's a zombie comedy and logic shouldn't count or prevail over laughters. But come on! Please put some intelligent display and handling over these illogical stuffs, so ALL kind of viewers would appreciate it and not be laughing for the wrong reason. Owh, whatever happened to that school-bus driver? Just a cameo? And that 'colorful' ending?

WHY???

Few positive things about this movie are the cinematography and the color tone. Kudos to that. But it can't save the laziness in producing this movie as a whole; from the trailer and poster to the exaggerating slapstick performance and location selections. Again, I didn't read the novel but I have a strong feeling that it doesn't do justice to the book. My review may vary if I'd read the book itself but as a stand-alone movie, KL Zombi was nothing more than a mere guilty pleasure to enjoy Zizan's performance with some other good-looking supporting cast.

I rated it 2/5 stars.