Excellent point about them being poor antagonists and just environmental. I didn't mean that their sophistication should be about intelligence or technology, but that what they are should be more thought through. 28 Days did this just fine, but it also altered a lot of what they do with the story. For example, the people with rage virus still had to consume stuff to stay alive, so after a good month of no food, they were all dead. The TWD zombie is kinda just a perpetual motion machine, and I feel like there has to be something more unique than that.

It's a very tough idea to tackle because part of what allows for a good story is the notion of perpetual motion zombies. I guess my main problems with the TWD zombies are (1) they're not aggressive, (2) they're super pussies that can never kill somebody who doesn't want to be killed. They only appear in flash hordes that do nothing or suddenly awaken and bite somebody. But every single time a moderately main character fights back, he doesn't come close to getting bitten

At the least, I think the zombies need to be scary. They should be so aggressive that when they see you they go crazy and when there's a horde, it's a doomsday scenario. Pretty much the way 28 Days did it