“This is the first movie of the year that I’ve been genuinely excited for. I mean longingly looking at the calendar at how far out it is just waiting for it to open. In an effort to capture some of the tween audience, there are some who are referring to Warm Bodies as Twilight with zombies. I prefer to think of it as Zombieland from the zombie’s point of view.
Our hero is R a zombie who’s been ambling aimlessly for his whole unlife, just trying to make a connection. While out on a hunting trip with his pack, he meets human Julie. And he falls in love. Completely absurd premise, but the movie’s kind of aware of that. Actually, if you really look at it, it isn’t too absurd. Okay, the zombie part maybe, but it’s completely structured around Romeo and Juliet. I didn’t even notice until IMDB trivia told me, but all of the main characters names point back to the play.
The zombie humor was fantastic. R narrates the action with such an earnest sincerity. Apparently even zombies have some of the same awkward feelings as humans do. All of the cliches were addressed, but with some fun twists. I dont really know how to describe it without giving things away.
Nicholas Hoult was a fantastic R. He delivered his inner monologue with the charm normally reserved for reading Joss Whedon’s words. His zombie-ness was really great too. He nailed the physicality, but I was particularly impressed with the dialogue delivery. It was sufficiently slow without getting frustrating (I found his zombie costars either went too slow or too quick with theirs).
The one thing I do gotta detract for slightly is that there was a big chunk of time where nothing was really happening. R made up some excuse to keep Julie around for a few days, and there was a lot of filler. Once the story picked back up, it got much better, especially with how things were unfolding at the end. I was a lil upset with the trailer giving away a shot that essentially spoiled the resolution. I will say no more so I can hopefully spare you the same fate.
Warm Bodies – \m/ \m/ \m/ \n