Warm Bodies

Warm Bodies (2013)
Directed by: Jonathan Levine
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 78%

I want to preface this review by saying I think that the whole Zombie motif is overdone. It's the new vampire. I am sure the CW will be launching Zombie Diaries soon enough. I used to be a zombie fan; back when they were mindless, shuffling, brain hungry monsters. I praised the Resident Evil series (awkward camera angles and all) up until the fourth game. Sure, Resident Evil 4 was a good game but it was not a Resident Evil game. The enemies were not zombies. That is when zombies began to shift in demeanor in both games and in film. 28 Days Later marked the beginning of a new era of zombie. These guys could think, run, plan, and just prove to be a damned nuisance to poor Cillian Murphy. I have never been compelled to watch The Walking Dead nor do I care about the zombie mode on Call of Duty. However, something about Warm Bodies' trailer struck me. This was yet another take on the genre. This is a romantic comedy between an awkward zombie, beginning to feel life again, and an attractive young woman. I saw it this evening and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Warm Bodies is not the RomCom I thought it was going to be. The story shudders along at times but it doesn't feel jarring. It fits the tone of the film. At the start of the film we are introduced to our main male character "R" (Nicholas Hoult). In his narration, R explains that he cannot remember his previous life. He wanders around the airport that he "lives" in thinking about what people's past professions were. He says that "... my hoodie would suggest I was unemployed". Right away it is clear that R is not a typical zombie. His brain appears to be functioning but there is a disconnect between the reasoning region and the action region. R rescues Julia (Teresa Palmer) and takes her back to his home (an airplane that he has decked out with records, lights, and other collected items). Through their time together, Julia learns that the "corpses" are not all mindless beasts. She sees that R is capable of emotion, understanding, reason, and compassion. Rod Corddry has a great role as R's best friend M (he also cannot remember his name). The two grunt, stare, and occasionally speak random words to each other. This is what constitutes friendship to zombies. John Malkovich co-stars as Julia's father. He has become the leader of the last human city and he is ruthless in his treatment of the corpses. Another great addition to the cast is relative newcomer Analeigh Tipton. She was in Crazy, Stupid Love (another fantastic Gosling movie) and I am glad to see her getting more roles.

One of the themes of Warm Bodies is the sense that these zombies have lost their will to live. There are two types of zombies in this universe: the corpses, or your typical shuffling zombies, and the skeletons. The skeletons are zombies that have completely lost hope. They peel off their own skin and will attack anything with a heartbeat. The main point there is that they have no hope. The film is stating that the ones that are meandering around the airport still have something; some shred of humanity. R realizes this when he meets Julia. He begins to change and, in turn, spreads the humanity that he is experiencing. It spreads like the zombie virus (or whatever it is that caused the Apocalypse) and causes the humans to question their actions. There is a point in the film where Julia is speaking with Nora (Tipton) and Perry (Dave Franco) about what they would do if the world were different. Julia said it would be nice to exhume the world. They ask her what that means and she says to revive; to cure. Perry corrects her and says that it means to dig up. This is such a poignant message to relay in a zombie film. The Earth is dead and it needs to be exhumed but the only thing that can do that; is love. It is a timeless message that The Beatles tried to tell us years ago but we just don't get it. Perhaps Warm Bodies will help us see that.



No BS

Warm Bodies is not easily placed in any particular genre. It has funny moments, it has romantic moments, it is horrific moments. I would compare it to Shaun of the Dead in regards to atmosphere. I think this one is worth seeing if you can accept the love story between a zombie and a human.

My Score: 7.5/10