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| Release: 2013, Rating: PG-13, Runtime: 98 min. |
Warm Bodies markets itself as a romantic zomedy (personally, I thought all zombie movies were romantic) and is geared towards merging two genres, romance and horror, and creating something enjoyable for everyone. Does it succeed in this endeavour, or fail miserably? I’ll give you a hint, my wife hates zombie movies and she still ended up watching and enjoying this…
Short nitty-gritty plot description from IMDb is as follows: After R (a highly unusual zombie) saves Julie from an attack, the two form a relationship that sets in motion a sequence of events that might transform the entire lifeless world.
The movie follows the undead life of R (Nicholas Hoult), a zombie who is different than most other zombies. Yes, he still eats brains and shuffles around with all the other undead, but he also does things that resemble something more human, like collecting nicknacks and has his own little home in an abandoned airplane. He has a best friend by the way of M (Rob Corddry). They don’t talk much, except for a few words here and there, but mostly grunts. However, things are looking bland and as told to us through a voice over from R, he would like something different. He gets his wish, when one day he meets Julie, a woman who literally jump starts his undead heart.
Julie is the daughter of Grigio, played by John Malkovich in a criminally underused role as a militant leader, hell bent on clearing out the undead. Grigio has created a walled off area of the city and sends scouts out for supplies. This is how Julie meets R and from there, the world as they know it, starts changing. The zombies are starting to have feelings and in fact are now becoming targets of the bone zombies, or bonies as they’re referred to, the gruesome, CGI laden version of zombies, who are now rotten and insane. R and Julie are now the target for these bonies and this is where the movie does a good job of crossing the two genres together. We start to care for the strange couple and we worry that something terrible is going to happen to them.
I won’t admit to being a big fan of love stories, but I gotta say, Warm Bodies does a superb job of making you like this new, quirky and bizarre relationship between R and Julie. It isn’t often that a movie has you rooting for a zombie to fall in love. The nice thing about the movie, is that is doesn’t go all mushy on you the entire run time. We get a good mix of humor, horror and the aforementioned romance. Although, I could’ve done with a little bit more horror and humor.
The movie also has a completely fantastic soundtrack, with a mix of older and newer songs played throughout. Besides the licensed music, it also has some heart pounding instrumental tracks that play during the tension filled scenes, such as the one where the bonies chase R and Julie through the airport.
I’m happy to say that Warm Bodies did a great job of making me enjoy a romantic comedy about a zombie falling in love with a hot girl. I know that they are trying to bring in the Twilight crowd on this one, with them even having the girl look like a hotter version of Kristen ‘gaping mouth’ Stewart. In fact, you even have the cliche laying in a field scene, but I like to think that Warm Bodies is making fun of Twilight, instead of it being a homage. Yeah, that’s what I will tell myself to make myself feel better. Anywho, horror fans I think you should give this one a chance and bring your significant other along with you, cause hey, you never know, you might get lucky after it’s over. (Does brain eating zombies make anyone else horny, or is that just me?)
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