Review: Warm Bodies
February 6, 2013
Warm Bodies
- Starring: Nicholas Hoult (X-Men First Class), Teresa Palmer (I Am Number Four), John Malkovich (RED) and more.
- Directed by: Jonathan Levine (50/50)
- Synopsis: “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.” (-official site)
- Rated: Rated PG-13 for language and zombie violence.
- Must-Watch Trailer:
- Review:
Zombies need love too!
Warm Bodies, a “Romeo and Juliet” type of love story based in a not so distant future, is a fun story of two separated lovers caught in the middle of a zombie epidemic.
Fun trivia from IMDB:The story is based loosely on “Romeo and Juliet”. “R” = “Romeo”; “Julie” = “Juliet; “Perry” = “Paris”; “M/Marcus” = “Mercutio”; “Nora” = Juliet’s “Nurse” (the character of Nora is also a nurse).
In classic “Twilight” form, this story revolves around an infected boy, not so human anymore, who falls in love for a human girl and becomes even more alive with her in his life. For some unknown, yet interesting, reason the prospect of her love causes symptoms of his “infection” to subside and sparks his journey to normalcy and acceptance among the undead and the living.
Much like Bella in Twilight, Julie falls for the pale not-so-human blood-hungry teenage type. (Perhaps it could be said though, that as a zombie, his initial attraction was because she had a brain!) While Palmer’s character was a little more believable than Bella of the Twilight Saga, I found that she tended to emulate Kristen Stewart’s wide-eyed open mouth stare a lot, which made me chuckle several times. (I jest, but there were several little elements that reminded me of the Twilight series).
Starring Nicholas Hoult (Beast from X-Men: First Class) as zombie “R” and Teresa Palmer (I Am Number Four) as his love interest Julie, Warm Bodies keeps the action and comedy light with a cast that also includes John Malkovich and Rob Corddry (who provide several additional laughs throughout). While no performance is memorable they are also not forgettable in this unique twist on a recycled story of love and overcoming obstacles. Each member plays their role admirably and believably for a tale of this kind.
Warm Bodies does not bring new life to the genre, however it does bring refreshing new plot angles to a familiar love story that leads to a forgivable expected ending. Matched with plenty of comedy fueled by grunts, inner-monologues of turmoil and multiple smile-cracking scenes of a fellow zombie friend (Corddry), it blends horror, comedy and love into one fun movie of the zombie-comedy genre.
braaaiiiinnnssss!!
It’s an interesting role reversal cheering on a zombie-of-sorts in a zombie movie (haven’t done that since Bill Murray in “**not shown due to possible spoiler**”). I began to feel like The Governor from The Walking Dead having sympathy and feelings for certain zombies. What’s THAT all about? (Side note, I am SO ready for Season 3 of The Walking Dead to resume this Sunday!)
Not quite funny enough to be a great comedy, nor gory enough to be a great zombie film and definitely not scary enough to be a great horror flick, Warm Bodies is lukewarm overall. It’s ridiculously entertaining, fun and silly, which is exactly what it sets out to be: an intriguing look at love through the lens of a starving zombie that does not take itself too seriously.
Score: 2.5 out of 5 stars for Warm Bodies
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Thanks for reading! Happy Watching!
-T, The Focused Filmographer
12 Comments
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So many mixed reviews
DVD for me
wise choice. better yet, Netflix it. haha.
it’s not baaaddd, it’s just not really good either!
This sounds exactly like the hipster zombie film that I never wanted.
yep, ya heard right man. ha. I wasn’t diggin the twilighty-ness of it, but, meh, girls just can’t seem to love regular guys anymore. It’s gotta be vampires, zombies, werewolves, wizards, etc…
When I saw the trailer for this I didn’t think it looked any good. I’m not surprised by your assessment. I doubt I’ll be seeing this any time soon.
Hey Dan, Thanks for stopping by. I don’t blame you for skipping it. if you ever see it, let me know your thoughts. I wasn’t left impressed by too much though.
Yeah, light and disposable fluff.
But decent light and disposable fluff. LOL Good review T.
Best line of the review: ” she tended to emulate Kristen Stewart’s wide-eyed open mouth stare a lot.”
I’m going to make this one a rental.
Good review.
hahahahahaha! *takes a bow* Thank you, Victor! ha
I became interested when I heard Levine was directing–I loved 50/50–otherwise I would have snickered…zombie love story? Please. -_- But, now I will give it a chance because it will be at least, original and fun. Could be worse–right?
Great write-up!
PS
YES!! Walking Dead!!!! So excited!
PSS
Game of Thrones is getting closer, too! Double Yes!
you’re right. it could be worse!
thanks for reading. and…props to you for the Walking Dead AND Game of Thrones shout out! a Double Yes indeed!