Quick Summary:
(From IMDb)
In Leadville, Colorado, Captain Rhodes and his army seals off the town to contain an influenza-type epidemic. The locals are not allowed to leave the town and the Pine Valley Medical Center is crowded with sick people. Corporal Sarah Bowman was born and raised in Leadville and goes to her home with Private Bud Crain to visit her mother. Sarah finds that her mother is ill and takes her to the local hospital. However, the sick people suddenly transform in flesh eating, fast moving zombies which attack the non-infected humans. Sarah, Bud and Private Salazar get a jeep and head to the town exit to escape from the dead. But Sarah hears the voice of her brother, Trevor, on the radio and is compelled to go to the radio station where Trevor is hidden with his girlfriend Nina. The group of survivors drives to the isolated Nike missile site seeking shelter, where they discover an underground army base.
Sarah Bowman (Mena Suvari)
Sarah Bowman is a strong character with a lot of baggage. She returns to her hometown where the audience discovers she has a lot of baggage and it is why she left. We don't really get to discover what caused her to leave everything or why her brother has such an antagonistic approach towards her. I believe their sibling bickering and feel it is genuine relationship. Mena Suvari is a talented actress and pulls off her role as a strong woman in the army who has tries to do the right thing and protect her brother. She gives the movie some credibility that it needed."Bud" Crain (Stark Sands)
The young and inexperience new recruit for the army with a crush on Sarah. He provides some comic relief and feels like the character you would relate to most in these situations. (SPOILER) I thought him turning into a zombie was sad, but also a truthful progression of losing your complicated thoughts, but not your feelings. He was kinda a cute zombie too. 
Capt. Rhodes (Ving Rhames)
A hardass captain who looks at this town and its inhabitants with disdain. Ving is often typecast in these roles, but he does a good job at it. I think he is underused here, but he is important to the story. (SPOILER) He does not last long in the film, but there is one of the more disgusting scenes with his eyeball (eww).
Pros
1. In the 1985 movie, we saw how the army became a corrupt force who exerted their power to dominate and it led to the destruction of their basecamp.
Here, we have someone with the army's perspective and the outside perspective. I don't really get the overbearing power of the army here, except for the quarantine it enforces. They end up dead like everyone else and their control is gone. This movie plays more into the government scientists trying to cover up their mess up. I was glad they didn't try to redo the original's concept.
2.The Zombie transformation, one of the more important aspects of every zombie film. I love the moment in the movie when all the sick people are hacking and it is noisy as hell in the hospital. Then it becomes hushed and all the sick people freeze for a couple of moments before complete chaos breaks out as they transform.
3. A Half Zombie. (SPOILER) When Bud is bitten, Sarah pours bleach on his wound, which she says will kill the infection. It doesn't, but it does slow it enough so that Bud still retains a lot of his personality, even as he loses some of his motor skills. This was an especially interesting concept, since it brings up the idea that maybe Bud would never fully turn into a monster and could live among humans.
4. Character development. (SPOILER) As Bud slowly turns into a zombie, he becomes more interesting as he struggles to stay human, but his physical attributes resemble the undead more and more. Also Sarah has some character development and get's more hard-core as the movie goes on, mowing down zombies toward the end when she was at first hesitant to hit them with her jeep.5. Zombies are not just zombies. Some zombies recognized you before they tore your head off. Some could shoot and actually trick humans. It's interesting to think that these zombies are more intelligent than the ones usually in movies, but it was varied among certain zombies. I wish they would have explored this a little more.
Cons
1. I appreciate they tried to work with the military theme like the 1985 original, but the back story became too complicated when they kept trying to explain it. The need to explain where the virus came from and why it came about was kind of unnecessary.
2. If the Zombie virus is airborne, why do only some people get it and not others? This always bothers me. That's why it is better to just say that bites and scratches turn you.
3. The Zombies. It seems like this movie tried to outdo all the movies with its super powerful, unable to be stopped, and jump two building floors with no problem. Also, this was never explained how the zombies became super-human. Fast zombies can be scary, but these zombies jumped off roofs and onto them and one even crawled on the ceiling. WTF?
4. The character's "inside jokes" or back story. As I mentioned, we don't get a lot of back story on Sarah and her brother, but we hear about a bike shop gone wrong that caused their rift. I didn't understand any of it and it probably should have been left out. Also, Sarah says "It's complicated" when asked why she doesn't have a loaded gun. Again, this seems to give depth to her character, but is not clear enough to be effective.
5. (SPOILER) When the whole group is hiding in a shed, Zombie Bud starts screaming out, alerting the other zombies to where they are. He seems to have common sense and loyalty to not hurt the group members, but here he acts out against the group. I also thought it could be more like an animal crying out in alarm, but it was an odd thing.
6. When Sarah mows down her zombie mom with her army jeep, she doesn't bat an eye. Just a little unrealistic...
Conclusion:
Overall, this 2008 version had nothing to do with the 1985 original. It could have had a completely different name, which I think would have served it better. It was more a more interesting zombie movie because of the different points of view from the military and the townsfolk.
It actually had a pretty solid plot with some developed characters. It tried to put together a complicated background where the zombie virus was created and who made it. It turns into a regretful scientist becoming the ultimate zombie predator in an underground bunker. Basically, a government weapon gone very wrong.
The film had some strong actors propping it up, Sarah and Bud. Bud provided some comic relief and Sarah was trying to survive and resolve some of her personal issues. I appreciated that this movie tried to eliminate those moments in horror movies where characters make very stupid mistakes. Sarah was a strong female lead and I appreciate that she showed vulnerability, but also great strength. Nick Cannon, as Salazar, was believable as a smart-ass army man who lends enough credibility to his role for me to buy it. The strength of this movie is the character interaction and you become invested in what happens to them.
Also, I like the homage to the Bud in the original film. The zombie with the decomposing heart of gold.
I give it 3 1/2 zombie heads out of 5.
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