Day of the Dead/YMMV

• Alternative Character Interpretation: In the original, Captain Rhodes: a complete monster? Or a man at the end of his patience doing the best he can with what little he has to try to put order into a society that has degenerated into chaos?
  • Also, just what makes the scientists and helicopter pilots any more nobler then the army guys? They act out of selfishness and make irrational decisions as well, yet somehow they're portrayed as the good guys in the movie.
• Critical Research Failure: Lots of errors in the 2008 remake. Some of the more egregious ones:
  • Soldiers being deployed in the field in nothing other than their BDU's (battle dress uniform). They should have at a bare minimum, their weapon, an LBV (load bearing vest), and a kevlar helmet. Soft caps are used in garrison, not while deployed in the field like these "soldiers" were. On top of that, they're wearing the old style uniforms in 2008, which were phased out around 2005, so they should've been wearing the modern ACU's (the digital camo ones).
  • Bub not being issued a weapon because he's a communications soldier. In the US Army, every soldier is trained first as an Infantryman, and every soldier gets a weapon. Would've been more plausible had they had their weapons slung on their backs while in the base camp.
  • Only Commissioned Officers (lieutenant, captain, major, etc) are addressed as sir or ma'am. Non-Commissioned Officers (NCO) such as Cpl. Cross should've simply been called "Corporal".
  • While the explanation was probably cut due to Executive Meddling, Cpl. Cross not loading her weapon with a magazine/live rounds because "it's complicated" is a big no-no. If deployed in a hostile area, soldiers are trained to have a round chambered and ready to fire. Or at the very least, a loaded magazine so they're not fumbling around on their LBV to load a magazine should they need to shoot.
• Crowning Music of Awesome:
  • Day of the Dead's electronic theme is very cold and clinical and very good at conveying the isolation and paranoia the main characters feel.
  • The brief reprise of "The Gonk", rendered in organ form.
• Ethnic Scrappy: Salazar, from the remake. The dumbfounding part is that all his lines were adlibbed by the actor himself.
• Ham-to-Ham Combat: Any scene with both Rhodes and Logan in it is practically made of ham.
• Straw Man Has a Point: People try to make a case for the original Rhodes. Just look at this discussion.
• Rooting for the Empire: A good proportion of viewers/fans find themselves rooting for Rhodes and co. towards the end.
• Tear Jerker: With the military dead, his master murdered, and the other personnel fleeing for the copter, Bub is left on his own with nothing but zombies for company. A sad fate that leaves one wondering if he will gradually gain in intelligence while all those around him remain flesh-hungry and he himself gradually rots, or if he'll just degenerate into a mindless automaton.
  • Land of the Dead answers that question.
• The Woobie: Bub.