I fear that we as a film seeing society, will hit critical zombie over-saturation and the zombie genre will be played the fuck out. Almost every zombie movie is the same with the kills, character arcs and overall same plot structure in that the people try to survive a particular situation from zombies and live to tell the tale. They ride off into the sunset, somehow one chapter of a larger story is done and it feels a bit cheap and easy. Now we have shows like The Walking Dead which manage to continue the story that most zombie leave off on, the continuation of the lives of those living in a zombie filled world. It’s a better story overall and gives us zombies, but not really, at least in the story structure sense. So maybe that is why I took to Warm Bodies with such a receptive and wide open arm stance than anything else. A zombie love story? Alright let’s see how it plays out.
A funny new twist on a classic love story, WARM BODIES is a poignant tale about the power of human connection. After a zombie epidemic, R (a highly unusual zombie) encounters Julie (a human survivor), and rescues her from a zombie attack. Julie sees that R is different from the other zombies, and as the two form a special relationship in their struggle for survival, R becomes increasingly more human – setting off an exciting, romantic, and often comical chain of events that begins to transform the other zombies and maybe even the whole lifeless world. (c) Summit
Given the concept, most would just roll their eyes at the thought of some teen romance flick with zombies in it as just some half ass attempt at making a Twilight-esque film for those teens who really like love stories with pretty teens in them and some sort of supernatural element. It was probably going to be bad and not worth the time, other than to see a gimmick premise wrapped around the buzzing zombie genre. I was absolutely, pleasantly surprised by the quirky film that manages to do something a bit different with the Z genre. A Romeo and Juliet tale of opposing lives, zombies and the living, somehow rewrite the rules of the zombie genre and make it all work somehow. I mean the premise of zombies somehow turning back into full fledged humans because of the feeling of love might seem ridiculous, which it is, but it might just be that sort of thinking that makes Warm Bodies a much more enjoyable movie.
It is a teen film, so don’t forget about that aspect, but a much smarter film than we might give it credit. I certainly loved hearing R’s voice-over narration in his zombie form, but when his articulate feelings are needing to be expressed, he can only stammer and grunt. A lovely little nod to the effects of the lovestruck teens who fall in love. It all plays out so precise, funny when it needs to be and heartfelt with its leads. Nicholas Hoult wide eyes his way through the entirety of the movie, being as expressive as possible and sly enough to make you believe his final transition. He does a great job with little, actual on screen dialog. He plays the teen zombie as if his real life persona was going through that awkward adolescent phase of figuring out ones life and experiencing love, frozen in time with his zombie life now. Teresa Palmer plays the love interest, the sort of attainable, but not really teen romance figure. Given her past roles, it really suits her to be in this movie.
The leads really do a fantastic job with the material, making a zombie/human love dilemma of the sorts believable to the audience. Certainly the development of their relationship over the course of the movie evolves along with the physics of R and his zombie state. The film is bolstered by some action sequence that aren’t too shabby, but then again their isn’t any blood to go along with the zombies ascending on a stray human or the random, bloody headshot of a zombie. The leads are committed to their roles and that shows. The comedic punches are delivered swiftly and sharply, mainly from the other zombies and Rob Corddry as R’s friend M. If you were on the fence about seeing this movie because it has the veneer of a Twilight movie, but with zombies, I would say give it a chance. I mean Twilight is about as bottom of the barrel as teen romance movies can get, this one at least has a lot more to it with a fresh genre twist and interesting adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. Plus who doesn’t like zombies?
