Review: “Dead Rising; Endgame”

They made five (or maybe more?) of the games. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised they made a second movie for this series.

Dead Rising; Endgame picks up right after the events of the first movie. A virus broke out that killed some unknown number of people and turned them all into flesh-eating, animalistic, undead killing machines. Zombies, if you will. In order to curb the threat, the government stepped in and created a vaccine of sorts that stops the infection of those bitten, and keeps them from becoming one of these creatures. Zombrex is administered to all those that were previously bitten and in order to keep them safe, they also install a small “chip” in them that will administer small doses of Zombrex and also monitor their infection level as well as their location.

Lots of folks are not happy about being not only tracked by the government but also at their mercy when it comes to a cure. Turns out, they were correct to be wary of all this. The reporter from the first film Chase Carter has been covering the story and has now been able to catch the Army General in charge of the program doing some rather nefarious things. Turns out they have been trying to create a different cure, one that will give the user eternal life. Not only that but they have been testing on subjects kidnapped and brought to an undisclosed location. With the help of his reporter buddies and a newly found informant, Chase looks primed to take his story and his evidence public. This is something that General Lyons can’t let happen. Now Chase is… being chased down and is not only trying to survive the zombie horde but also the onslaught of army soldiers hunting him.

As zombie movies go, this one isn’t egregiously bad. I mean… it’s got a plot, and it’s as well written as any black ops zombie action flick can be. The special effects are at times decent and at times comically bad. There were several sections in the movie where it felt like someone was reading the script or the plot development and they had to make revisions just to sew up plot holes, but barely did that. The ending felt so tacked on at the last second just to try and make room for yet another sequel.

I would say that if you watched the first one, like I did, and want to see where that plot went, it might be worth a watch. It is free streaming on Tubi at the moment so that makes it more tolerable. The one thing that it really did was make me want to go back and play the old games again. Which, speaking of, one of the characters is doing at the beginning of the movie.