Jonathan Levine’s Warm Bodies (2013) Movie Review

From the First trailer, Warm Bodies can easily be classified as one of those zombie movies. But try to look closer, there’s actually a love story brewing between the living and the undead. This is what makes Warm Bodies different from the rest. And for good reason… Who would ever thought that a love story could arise from creatures of two different worlds? I guess you have to see the movie!!!

With much of the future world’s population rendered into an undead horde, R is a young, and oddly introspective, zombie. On a feeding encounter with a human gathering party, R meets Julie and feels an urge to protect her. What happens with that is the beginnings of a strangely warm relationship that causes R to start to regain his humanity. As this change spreads throughout the undead population, Julie and R eventually find they are facing a larger issue even as their friendship is challenged. Caught between the paranoid human forces and the ferocious Bonie zombies who are a mutual threat, R and Julie must find a way to bridge the sides to fight for a better world no one thought possible.

Nicholas Hoult (the kid from About a Boy!) as a zombie that can only grunt a few words out at a time did a really good job. Some say he looks like a young Tom Cruise. I liked the actor who played his best friend “M” (Mercutio?) as well, Rob Corddry.  I liked that his best friend was a guy a lot older than him. Julie, played by Teresa Palmer, is sweet. .  The girl looks similar to Kristen Stewart. Thought John Malkovich was going to steal the movie as he normally does.

The director of this movie, Jonathan Levine, did 50/50 and adapted this screenplay from the novel by Isaac Marion. This is not your everyday zombie movie. It’s actually one of the most notable zombie movies made in recent times. This is a movie where the zombie is the protagonist. Kudos to whoever crafted the story. The genre is horror, romance, and comedy. I’m glad that scriptwriters are able to go beyond the typical horror-only zombie movies. And because of that, this film is a must watch.

One of the best parts of the movie is the set designs.  The airport gone apocalyptic, the suburbs gone apocalyptic–very visual stuff.

The next best thing, for me, were the dream sequences, even though they happen from R eating someone’s brain.  I don’t know how they pull off that kind of fuzzy outlined highly lit dream sequences but they were ethereal and they contrasted well with the dark zombie world where most of the movie takes place.

How come the bodies were getting warmer?  I never figured that out.  It can’t just be “love,” can it?

I really liked the first twenty minutes. They started it off with R (Nicholas Hoult) narrating what his life is like as a zombie. Then he meets Julie and becomes smitten with her. There were some cute looks and grunts which were adorable in a zombie kind of way.

Bella is a bit of a ogle too, ‘I’m going upstairs to bed,’ ‘my clothes are wet I’m going to take them off, don’t look.’ Dude, he’s dead, that’s wrong. Which I think is the hurdle that Warm Bodies cannot overcome. It’s the reason I couldn’t connect to the movie completely.

It’s Romeo and Juliet with zombie’s touch. For a Zom-rom-com, it could do with a bit more com. It does have a few funny moments but it could do with a few more, not seen in the trailer. It starts off well, the internal zombie monologue and the daily grind of being a zombie is good. The idea of a zombie and human falling in love seems like a ridiculous and silly plot, with some brilliant writers and good actors it’s pulled off miraculously. Worth a Watch..

Survi Review: 3/5 (Some times its better to be Dillogical…)

Theatrical Trailer: