Valentine's Day... it's sometimes a hit or miss for me. This year it was a miss (but not judging or anything). Though, I decided to change things up and actually watched a "romance" movie last week to see what I've been missing. Not really a romantic-comedy person out of all the genres but a rom-com about zombies... I just had to see this. This movie review will be for the post-apocalyptic true love zombie romance: Warm Bodies.
The Premise: Zombies have taken over the world and only a select few factions of the human population are left to survive. R (played by Nicholas Hoult) is an unnamed zombie who spends his days at the abandoned airport with his zombie cohorts. One day when they decide to look for human flesh, they discover a local group of human survivors searching for medical supplies. R quickly is drawn to one the survivors, Julie Drigio (Teresa Palmer) and after killing her boyfriend, his memories intensifies his attraction to her. By sparing Julie and trying to protect her from deadly zombies, the pair begin an unusual romance that could be the cure to the zombie apocalypse once and for all.
The Good: Warm Bodies is unbelievably funny if you don't take the movie too seriously. A story about a human girl that starts to fall in love with a zombie (and vice versa) is a bit cheeky and random even in today's monster romance pop culture. The movie does stand on its own but leaving the theatre I felt that this could be a parody on Twilight and all the other romance films (i.e. like werewolves and vampires). Too many corny and cliche lines were added to the final film that were just too funny to not laugh. While movies like Twilight tried to establish themselves as a serious film, Warm Bodies understood its camp factor and embraced it.
I have to applaud Nicholas Hoult on his portrayal of a zombie that slowly returns to life. Facial expressions are a natural part of living and trying to look like someone who has had a major dose of daily botox must have been hard to pull off. Plus, his voiceover dialogue really helped Warm Bodies at the small dull points in between the plot. His co-star Teresa Palmer was a better "Kristin Stewart-type" compared to the original homage and thankfully she showed more emotion! Also of note, Rob Corddry and Analeigh Tipton added some comedic relief for both the zombie and human sides as the best friends.
The Bad: Warm Bodies, while incredibly funny in their dialogue, really lacked in their fine-tuning of the special effects. Sure, the make-up and prosthetics were done pretty well when it came to the human zombies, but the "Boneys" didn't impress me. It clearly was CGI and made to the look like burnt zombie skeletons. A few more hours or days put into the design possibly would have helped; it wasn't detrimental to my opinion but it could have helped in the final product.
The campy and cheeky tone of Warm Bodies made the horror rom-com better than I had originally expected. However, there weren't enough of those comedic moments to carry the film. Many of the flashbacks about Perry, Julie's recently dead boyfriend, were pointless especially when it was about a character who died early on in the story. His backstory later on triggered R's romance for Julie and it did provide need plot elements, but it added a more romantic overtone when a comedic element was missing based on the image that was presented in trailers.
The Results: 3.5/5!
Warm Bodies introduced us to a rom-com element that we didn't really think about before: a zombie boy falls in love with a human girl. It's an undefined parody that clearly points a finger at movies like Twilight where it's impossible to believe this would ever really happen. Though, with that being said, the movie doesn't take itself too seriously except for creating an overall good movie that showcased some undervalued acting talent. Will I ever watch Warm Bodies again? Probably. It has its place where it could show up on a movie night for some laughs or on a mini movie marathon. No sequel potential (maybe...) for Warm Bodies so enjoy the film while it lasts in theatres and go check it out.
Agree or Disagree with the final results for the review? Post your thoughts in the comments below about when you thought of Warm Bodies.
It's profess a deep importance in movies, the absolutely dominant global art form of the last century, is at this point like professing an interest in air. Passion is nice. intellect is admirable. But it's like that moment when good manners cross over into meaningless good manners.
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