Warm Bodies is the paranormal zom-rom-com you didn’t know you’d been waiting for. Based on Isaac Marion’s popular novel, and directed by Jonathan Levine (mostly known for his 2011 film 50/50), it follows the story of R, a zombie (Nicholas Hoult) who falls in love with a human named Julie (Teresa Palmer). When their romance sets in motion a sequence of events that allow the dead to return to life, both R and Julie will stop at nothing to make the change permanent, and perhaps save the world.
The film frequently references Romeo and Juliet, from the names of its leads to the most obvious theme of two people from opposite sides drawn to love one another against all odds. After being saved by R, Julie is taken back to his home. After a few days’ stay for protection, she starts to learn and understand that the zombies aren’t all bad – maybe R is special. She starts to see the change within him and wonders if she’s been wrong the whole time.
This movie throws out the familiar rules of the zombie genre once R starts narrating his thoughts and feelings. Most zombie films always have the monster being a mindless walking-eating machine, it’s kind of what they are. They still do that here, but they sometimes feel bad about it. The inner-monologue of the zombie is humorous, different, and fun, and R’s thoughts allow the audience to hear him as he learns how to love, to fight, and to deal with girls.
The development of our protagonist’s love was the movie’s strongest point. Yes, it’s a little crony, but it’s balanced between the romance and gross-outs, since R still has to eat human brains to survive.
Some could argue that the film suffers from one big fundamental flaw: Why wouldn’t Julie just run away? She has several opportunities to just leave and be done with R. But she stays. Why?
I think the big reason is that she felt something when he saved her and she was just curious, and mostly scared out of her mind. Zombies always outnumber her and when R “masks” with zombie blood, she is probably still scarred. I think fear is the reason she stays in the beginning, but soon she sees that there’s more to R than what she thought.
Maybe this could be a little bit of Stockholm syndrome, but that’s the movie. So to the people who found her not running away to be unbelievable: Really? It’s a movie about a human falling in love with an undead dude. What did you expect? There’s nothing believable about this, so sit back, relax, and enjoy the comedy.
The cast for this movie was fun. Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer carry the movie fine and have a nice chemistry together on film. You see right away why Julie falls for R, he’s one charming zombie. John Malkovich plays Julie’s father, the leader of the human survivors who hates all zombies because they took away his life and family. We’ve seen this character in every zombie movie, so it wasn’t anything new, but Malkovich played it well. R’s best friend M (as far as you can say that about a zombie), is played by comedic actor Rob Cordry who brings his funny sense of timing and wit to a role that normally wouldn’t have much to laugh about. The relationship between R and M is very fun. The fact that they both know they’re zombies and have nothing better to do is played well, and both actors seem to be having a great time.
Warm Bodies isn’t the best movie, but it was fun and never once did I feel my time was wasted by R’s journey. The movie has laugh-out-loud moments, decent special effects, great zombie make-up, and some damn fine music! It’s a fun new look at the tired, but still popular zombie genre, and sometimes you need something different and refreshing – like Warm Bodies – to remind you why you love a genre in the first place.