MONDAY MOVIE REVIEW- Warm Bodies (2013)
The zombie apocalypse has happened and R has found himself as one of the walking dead. He lives in an abandoned airplane in an airport filled with zombies going about their daily business. This mainly consists of grunting and moaning, and occasionally heading to the city to find people to eat. R is on one of these food runs when he finds Julie a tough but beautiful girl who he instantly falls in love with. After disguising her as a zombie to protect her from his fellow undead, R bring her home where the two slowly get to know each other, and fall in love. The more R connects with Julie, the more human he begins to feel again, but how can love survive between the living and the undead?
I shamefully admit that I have not read Warm Bodies, the novel by Issac Marion. I had planned on it, but just couldn't find the time last month. Still, the trailer for the movie was really attention grabbing, so I decided to give it a try, and read the book later. As far as the movie goes, Warm Bodies may not be a fantastic film, but it has a lot of elements that work quite well. Here are a few things that struck me.
Twilight with Zombies?- I've read/watched a handful of reviews that start off by asking the audience if Warm Bodies is basically Twilight with Zombies. This is typically followed by a vehement denial that the movies have ANYTHING in common. Still, if you look at it a certain way, there's no denying the two films have similarities. Both Twilight and Warm Bodies feature a romance between a living girl, and undead guy. Romance is sparked when the undead guy saves the living girl's life, and their relationship forms through the movie, despite the fact that their love should be impossible. It's when you look a little closer at the two films that their differences become more apparent. Warm Bodies rejects Twilight's admittedly problematic tendency to equate lust with love. Unlike Bella, Julie doesn't obsess over R's good loves (after all, he is a rotting corpse) but finds herself fascinated despite the fact that he's a zombie, he still feels somewhat alive. In that way, it's more of a Beauty and the Beast story than it is a Twilight (or even a Romeo and Juliet) story. Warm Bodies also differs from Twilight in it's tone, due to its black humor. It's far more self aware of its occasional ridiculousness and isn't afraid to poke fun at itself.
Melding Different Genres- Warm Bodies is a genre bending film which attempts to meld horror, romance, and comedy. The results are admittedly somewhat mixed. Where the movie feels the strongest is when the focus is on the laughs. R's internal monologue is filled with giggle worthy moments, as is some of the dialogue from R and Julie's friends. As a romance it does okay. The chemistry between the two leads works well, even if it can come off as cheesy at times. R's transformation, sparked by his connection with Julie, is handled really well by actor Nicholas Hoult. Where the movie falls a little short is in the zombie/horror genre. Since so much of the attention is on the relationship between Julie and R, it feels like almost no effort was put into the zombie elements. We get scraps of worldbuilding delivered through flashbacks but it never feels like enough. In the present day, the human resistance is led by Julie's father, played by a woefully underused John Malkovich. Pretty much all of his dialogue feels like stock quotes taken out of a second rate zombie movie. To top it all of the ending is pretty weak. Call my a cynic but it feels like everything is just tied together way to perfectly to give all of our characters happy endings.
Strong Soundtrack- Is this the first time I've talked about a soundtrack on one of these reviews? Weird. One thing that Warm Bodies does really well is with it's soundtrack. From the retro records that hipster zombie R plays in his airplane, to the suspenseful soundtrack that plays during some of the action sequences, the music does a great job of enhancing the emotion of the scene, while not distracting from it.
Final Thoughts- Warm Bodies is a quirky little zombie love story that attempts to meld comedy, romance, and horror together. Although it doesn't quite succeed there are many elements, such as it's strong soundtrack, entertaining comedy, and worthwhile performance from it's lead actor, that make Warm Zombies worth checking out. I would keep this one a matinee or a rental though. Three and a Half Stars