Cargo - it's got zombies… I think

I really wanted to enjoy 'Cargo.' I'm a big fan of zombie films. I've been a big fan of Martin Freeman ever since his days working at 'Wernham Hogg.' And I have a Netflix account, allowing me to watch it as all part of my subscription. I didn't expect some sort of 'Resident Evil' action-fest, more something along the lines of (a deliberately lower-budget) '28 Days Later.' And, I guess I got that.

Whatever zombie apocalypse has already taken place. I think this is worth mentioning, as it rules out any large action scenes showing the fall of society. It's basically all set in a post apocalyptic Australian Outback. However, at the best of times the Outback can be pretty bleak, so apologies if I'm sounding flippant, but the setting makes it hard to tell if an apocalypse has taken place or not!

Martin Freeman and his on-screen wife play a middle class couple with two young children who are doing their best to survive among the desert. I say 'desert' over 'zombies' because the humans' main concern is food rather than BEING food. You really don't see an awful lot of the infected/undead. And, when you do, it's fleeting at best. The couple have reasonable chemistry and the cracks sometimes show in their relationship due to the terrible stress caused by the situation and the worry about their children. You will care about their plight as they're parents, but, for people that have seemingly got through the worse of the outbreak, the characters fall into that horror cliched trap of making dumb decisions and therefore the audience loses sympathy with them.

Having watched the film I'd simply describe it as 'okay.' There are so many zombie films and TV shows that fair play to the film-makers for trying something else, but this doesn't have action, there's not that much gore, barely any zombies, there aren't that many characters for you to relate to and you can kind of see what's coming a mile off.  As with many similar movies (ever since 'Night of the Living Dead') it shoves the message that 'humans are more dangerous than zombies' and are the 'real' enemy, even in a situation like this.  I didn't regret watching it, but, as a die-hard zombie fan, there are so many other similar movies that were released decades ago and yet still stand the tests of time.  This one is purely 'filler' for Netflix's content catalogue.  It's not bad, but not special enough to really remember.

5/10 a hard trek, a bit like unicycling to Mordor and back