Patient Zero Movie Review

Patient Zero (2018)

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Written by: Mike Le (screenplay)
Directed by: Stefan Ruzowitzky
Starring: Natalie Dormer, Matt Smith, Stanley Tucci, Clive Standen
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
After an unprecedented global pandemic turns the majority of humankind into violent "Infected," a man gifted with the ability to speak the Infected's new language leads the last survivors on a hunt for Patient Zero and a cure.

Verdict
Despite another entry into the zombie genre, this starts out with an interesting premise. The plot seems to be a hunt for a cure, not survivors on the run. Scientists in essence interview zombies, but that premise is soon abandoned. That's the point where this movie loses all coherency.
Skip it.

Review
Matt Smith can communicate with the infected. He was drafted by the military for the role and that gives him a certain amount of room to be unorthodox. The infected hate music, so he luckily has an extensive vinyl collection he uses to torment and thus extract answers from zombies.

The zombies grunt and hiss, but that's actually a complicated language you learn instantly upon becoming infected. For whatever reason Matt didn't turn upon being bitten, but he can understand the language.

 

There's a romantic relationship between he and the scientist played by Natalie Dormer that seems completely forced. Why can't they just work together?

This has a twist reminiscent of Richard Matheson's novel I am Legend. The infected aren't the dumb zombies we've been led to believe. The infected, played marvelously by Stanley Tucci, reveals the hidden depths of the infected. Just as Matt Smith and crew are looking for patient zero, the infected are looking for their own patient zero. It's a neat twist that is upended when the government lab is overrun. The last half of this movie is mindless running from zombies. There is nothing at all interesting from that point on.

I don't understand how no one has discovered the labs the infected run or even met one that isn't just a step above a drooling idiot. The setup to this movie was awesome. I was hoping for more interview type scenes, but it seems like someone thought that would be too boring. What a loss.