In 2020’s “Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 2,” heroine Addison spent a lot of her arc trying to figure out if she was perhaps the “Great Alpha” werewolf. When that was a bust, we were left on a cliffhanger as Addison was left pondering on her origins. And we were given a clue—from outer space. The idea of Addison perhaps being an alien makes a ton of sense considering the character guidelines the movies follow, and with the final movie in Disney’s “Z-O-M-B-I-E-S,” Disney works fast to seal up any and all lingering questions about Addison and Zed.
It’s another year in Seabrook. Bucky is school prez, and Zed is trying to win a homecoming game to get monsters in the college. But when the recruiters are about to recruit Zed into Mountain College, aliens come looking for a map, blowing his chance to get in the college. Not being able to tell Seabrook their mission, they lie that they came to compete in Addison’s national cheer competition. But when Zed and Addison board the UFO they may have found the Addison might be an alien.
This allegedly final outing for the movie series finds pretty much all the characters back and on the verge of leaving high school and entering in to college. A lot of Zed and Addison’s own sub-plots revolves around one big moment that could indicate their futures not only in Seabrook but in the world. So does the rest of the world have this zombie problem or is it only Seabrook? Does everyone know about Zed? Are there other zombies out there like Zed fighting for acceptance and equality? It’s never elaborated or explained, which really is too bad. A lot of Addison’s screen time is reduced to winning a cheer competition which would allow the aliens access to the mythical moonstone.
The maguffin that we heard about in the sequel we hear about again in this film. There’s, again, not a lot of elaboration as to what the moonstone is and why it holds the key to just about everyone’s futures and powers. A lot of “Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 3” is under developed and doesn’t offer us a ton of exposition. For example, are the aliens humanoids or a type of humanoid? Are the aliens the reasons for the zombie apocalypse that split Seabrook in two or would it not have made much of a difference? Nonetheless, the new musical numbers are fine, but still not as good as the ones from “Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 2.” I also very much liked the new alien characters, all of whom bring something new to the movie series.
The cameo from RuPaul as the aliens’ Artificial Intelligence space ship is also a welcome bit of comedy. “Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 3” is not the home run that should have closed out the series, but it closes up a lot of the plot threads. And yes, it also leaves some sub-plots dangling in case Disney pushes for “Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 4,” or a soft reboot with new characters. Because, it’s Disney, after all.
Now Streaming on Disney Plus and Amazon Prime Video.