Despite a weak cuddly-zombie concept, “Zombies” turned out to be the most pleasantly surprising, thanks in large part to its excellent musical score and its focus on issues of prejudice and tolerance. Because of this, I regret to inform you that “Zombies 3” is an artistic dud, rehashing the same idea one too many times.
Zombie 3 Reassembled The Same Suspects
The plot skips over Disney Channel in favor of Disney+, where the regular suspects are reunited in a community where humans, zombies, werewolves, and (in a particularly poor flourish) aliens all dwell. Of course, when a UFO flies over Seabrook High, it brings along several extraterrestrial-looking teenagers, complete with dyed hair and a few spots on the face (and not the type of face dots that most teenagers worry about).
The aliens have arrived on Earth in search of a new home because ecological calamity has destroyed their homeworld, delivering a subtle but important message about the climate in the process. A glimpse of what “Glee” season 17 could have looked like features the group searching for Seabrook’s most valuable treasure, which gives them an opportunity to hang out with the gang and partake in some gravity-defying cheerleading.
To return to the original cast, the corpse Zed (Milo Manheim) is anxious to be the first creature to gain admission to Mountain College. This is so he may avoid having to split up with his fiancée Addison (Meg Donnelly). After all, maintaining a connection across great distances is challenging under normal circumstances, let alone in the face of an alien invasion.
One of the aliens (played by Terry Hu) is a non-binary character, and the film proceeds along these lines, which made it feel energizing and modern by Disney Channel norms in 2018, well before the current conservative accusations against the studio. Although, as it is, practically everything here just seems louder and bulkier, as if the mediocrity of the song-and-dance routines could be hidden by adding more people to them.