Review: Warm Bodies

Review: Warm Bodies

I'll be honest: I expected Warm Bodies to be dreadful. As the lights went down and the movie began with Nicholas Hoult's dry narration, I rolled my eyes and assumed a comfortable enough position to endure what I predicted would be a female-exclusive replacement for The Twilight Saga. 

Not for the first (or last) time, I was definitely wrong.

That's not to say that Warm Bodies is particularly brilliant or original. It certainly won't appeal to most fans of the zombie genre due to its slightly vague overview of the walking corpses, but the movie utilizes its interesting premise to provide a quirky, swift and humorous flick that thankfully seems to know and understand its status as brainless romantic fun.

Nicholas Hoult (formerly of E4's Skins) stars as "R", a zombified teen whose life now involves shuffling, grunting and moping awkwardly around an airport with his fellow undead. When he brutally eats the brain of her boyfriend and falls in love with Julie (Teresa Palmer), R begins to question whether there could be more to the world than simply eating human flesh; before long, his connection with Julie begins to restore life to both himself and the other zombies around him - but Julie's father, resistance fighter General Grigio (John Malkovich) may not be so keen on the idea of his daughter befriending the same creatures which killed his wife.

So, with some decent plotting and likeable protagonists who are actually strong enough to do things for themselves, this is not the Zombie-Twilight. Still, it's not quite as cool as it should be, failing to take advantage of the zombie genre it wants to be a part of and instead spending more time on the romantic aspects of the narrative. 

Certainly there's nothing wrong with the cast, though. Hoult, whose previous performances in the likes of Clash Of The Titans have been somewhat dim, is brilliantly understated as R; as the film applies plenty of voice over for the purposes of comedic exposition, Hoult's sarcasm and dry wit shines through as we watch him stagger around in classic zombie fashion. Meanwhile, Teresa Palmer is a perfectly amiable female lead, acting out the combination of Julie's fear, confusion and determination and proving that the girl doesn't always have to be the damsel in distress.

Shot with a gloriously grey tinge to highlight the bleak existence of humanity after this (unfortunately vague) apocalypse, Warm Bodies also bites its teeth into the indie genre with a killer soundtrack including the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Bon Iver and The Nationals as R and Julie initially connect over their love of music ("I prefer vinyl," grunts R slowly, "...better sound. More alive.").

Ultimately though, Warm Bodies succeeds mostly because it manages to touch base on several different styles in its relatively snappy running time. There's sci-fi, there's comedy (although admittedly not as much as it thinks it has), there's romance and last but not least, there's a satisfying level of action and gore at the film's climax that gives the story a decent send-off. 

Summary

Despite the abundance of zombies within Warm Bodies, there's a beating heart in this tale that holds our attention from beginning to end. Nicholas Hoult is brilliantly deadpan as R, while Teresa Palmer is a likeable co-star. A lack of focus on the zombie aspect of the narrative takes away some of its impact and most of the romantic scenes are cheesy, but overall Warm Bodies strikes one as the undead lovechild of 500 Days of Summer and Zombieland. Not bad for a film with no brrrrraaaains...(sorry).

7/10 - Good

See it if you liked: Zombieland (2009), 500 Days of Summer (2009), Dark Shadows (2012)