Review of Warm Bodies (2013) by Sarita K — 09 Aug 2014

Every now and then I like to see a movie that I know will have a happy ending. There are so many dark and dreary movies out there, that sometimes I just want to feel warm and fuzzy. As someone who groans at most standard rom-coms, but enjoys The Walking Dead, Warm Bodies is just what I was looking for.

I want to praise the movie for its unique look. The makeup on the zombies looks great. They manage to make R look creepy and dead, but at the same time sweet and kind of cute. Also, this is a zombie movie, so there is some great ick factor (eating of brains is just as gross as you'd expect).

Considering they're zombies, the movie does a good job capturing the personalities of characters who can't speak more than grunts and a few words. There's a moment when R and his best friend have a conversation that consists of grunts, groans, and gestures, that is amusing but actually does convey what they're trying to say, more or less.

While the movie was predictable (spoilers, I guess? You know R and Julie are going to fall in love. You know the humans are going to turn on R.) it still had some nice twists along the way. I wasn't expecting Julie's boyfriend to get killed so early in the movie. I also didn't expect R to eat his brains and enjoy Perry's memories. I expected the friend who was left alive to turn on Julie and R. Luckily, I was pleasantly surprised by all these things that defied expectations.

Special mention: the soundtrack was good, particularly the use of a favorite Guns N Roses song during a key scene.