Scouts honor, this film is not as bad as its trailers made it look.

“Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse,” directed by Christopher Landon and starring Tye Sheridan and Logan Miller, makes up for its immaturity and idiotic qualities by being fun and good-natured.

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Ben, Carter and Augie, three teens in Boy Scouts, team up to save their town from a virus caused zombie apocalypse.  

This film is well-below greats like “Shaun of the Dead” and “Zombieland.” But “Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse” has enough of those films’ tropes to make a decent movie.

The ability of film to have fun should not be discredited. If a movie can make an audience member forget about the outside world, its done its job.

“Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse” is an entertaining movie. From start to finish, it has enough dark humor and zombie madness to make you forget its flaws.

The movie also uses engaging, though sometimes one-dimensional characters.

If the film had pushed further with character development, this would be just as good as a “Zombieland.” Instead, the audience is given average representations of nerdy high school teenagers. 

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Characters are incredibly shallow at various points. One is the teen obsessed with sex, one is the nerd and one is the leader.

These kids are hoping to get laid as much as they want to belong. They are empathic enough in their plight that it’s easy to connect to them, but you don’t attach to them beyond a base level.   

The film’s biggest problem is how little it tries.

It feels like a student satisfied with a C. He or she saw they had done enough to pass, so they stopped trying.

The film reaches for average, and achieves it, not knowing it could be so much more.

Stars: 3 out of 5 

Jacob Pierce can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @JacobPierce1_DE.