Review: Warm Bodies

To be honest, a movie was released that I never thought would actually happen. For a few people that know me well, I stated that zombie romances would never be a thing because they are nasty and gross. I also had faith in humanity that a line would be drawn somewhere. Apparently I was wrong.

Follow after the break for a spoilery review of a thing that actually happened:

Well, it happened. Warm Bodies, based off a book by the same name, starred Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer was released early 2013. It follows the story of a Zombie Apocalypse survivor, Julie, and her undead suitor, R. You can probably see where this is going. I had been told by several people that I should watch it because it was cute and/or funny and right up my alley. Aside from the whole Zombie aspect, because I cannot watch those kinds of movies without bursting into tears. True facts.

I watched this with a girl friend over dinner (a mistake in some parts) after a long day at a convention for a bit of a laugh a few months after it came out.

For the record, I like Nicholas Hoult. I enjoyed his portrayal as Beast in X-Men: First Class and look forward to the next movie. I am going to say now that I'm not the best person to review things because, while I have a huge tolerance for bad but enjoyable movies, sometimes I like things that other people would find terrible and dislike things that other people love (aka Star Trek: Into Darkness; I don't like to talk about it).

The movie follows R's point-of-view. He does all the voice-over narration since we're in his head for the most part. I will admit that there were parts of this movie that were actually funny, particularly the exchange when he tries to infiltrate the human camp and goes to talk to the soldier:

Kevin: Hey.
R: [voice-over] Say something human. Say something human.
R: How... are... you...?
R: [voice-over] Nailed it.

Other parts make absolutely no sense or don't follow in-movie continuity. At the beginning, the viewers are told that zombies don't move fast and hunting takes a while. Then, later on in the movie (and in a flashback too, wtf) zombies are seen as running really fast. And how Julie never noticed that R was carrying around her dead boyfriend's brain in his POCKET for most of the movie. Surely it should have soaked through the fabric, or y'know, smelled.

Something that disappointed me was how much they seemed to make it like Twilight. The actress playing Julie looked a lot like a blonde Kristen Stewart and the way she played it in parts definitely felt like how Kristen played Bella. The looks and mannerisms were nearly identical in the beginning and it was a bit off putting. It also looks like some of the promo photos for the movie were based on the ones from Twilight, so I'm not sure if they did this intentionally to poke fun at Twilight or they seriously thought it was a good idea. Although there is a lot less of the creepy, dominance promo images that Twilight has where Edward always has to be holding/gripping onto Bella in some way, usually her arm.

There are some serious Twilight vibes going on.

Continuing on things that are ridiculous. The idea that the power of R and Julie's love is enough to make ALL the other zombies suddenly start turning back into human's and getting heart beats was a bit ridiculous. I don't know how serious the book was when it came to this theme and I'm fairly certain there was a lot of changes from that to the movie adaptation but really. I can believe R changing because of ~true love, but not the rest of them. That's just heading into Breaking Dawn territory. And the part after M originally tries to nom on Julie and then suddenly changes his mind and drives into the other zombies to save the pair was a bit jarring.

THERE WAS NO BATTLE RESOLUTION. Or a really quick one where the writer's went: 'Oops! Forgot about that, better put in a two minute scene where that Boney problem gets solved.' They built up this whole battle between the Zombies/Humans vs The Boneys and then completely forgot about it because it got in the way of the romance development. I mean, they really did. R and Julie jump out the window into the fountain below to get away from the Boneys and then have a lovely wet, sunlit make-out scene and the Boneys are suddenly a non-appearance until the last five minutes before the end. What is that? You don't have you characters running away from these creatures that are supposedly vicious, heart-beat tracking undead monsters that stop at nothing and then have them afraid of jumping out a window. They're undead. Falling out a window would not be an issue for them.

I really wish I could link the livestream tweets I did whilst watching the movie the first time. There was lots of snark. Oh, what the hey, I'll find the screencaps of it. Here are a selection of the highlights:

There were a lot.

One of the things I did like were the friendships. R and his zombie bro M are actually one of the best parts of the movie. I really liked their friendship, as well as the friendship between Julie and Nora. They're both willing to put aside their prejudices, against humans and zombies, respectively to help the main characters hook up and save the world. Nora was pretty awesome, although she was surprisingly ok with her BFF being in love with a zombie to begin with after Julie came back. It was a bit weird, but she redeemed herself later in the movie.

Zombie Makeover scene. That is all.

R's internal dialogue was pretty good too. Not gonna lie, if this movie didn't have it in some parts it would have been a lot worse. His awkwardness about being a zombie in love with a human reflects the kind of internal dialogue that I think a lot of people go through when they like someone. I know as someone who has social awkwardness; that some of what R was saying to himself, was something I do as well when interacting with people. It felt authentic, which surprised me.

All in all, Warm Bodies isn't the worst movie I've ever seen. It's not mind-bogglingly great either. As long as you don't take it super seriously it's entertaining, apologies to any Warm Bodies fans out there. It didn't end like the usual Romeo and Juliet stories go, with an actual ending where both characters live. Or re-live in R's case. A good movie to get if you want a bit of a laugh or enjoy watching Nicholas Hoult's zombie run.