Review of Warm Bodies (2013) by Amber P — 03 Mar 2014

Tuesday, February 4, 2014.

(2013) Warm Bodies.

SCIENCE-FICTION ROMANTIC DRAMA/ HORROR.

Upon looking at a title called "Warm Bodies" I thought it reminded me of a title for a porno movie but when you watch it, it's really the zombie equivalent of 'Romeo & Juliet' love story and uniquely original- another film that doesn't depict zombies as grotesque and disgusting things we often are accustomed to seeing. This can also be the kind of movie you can bring your date to. And people expecting plenty of 'blood and gore' or plenty of zombie killings, similar to "Zombieland" and "Dawn Of The Dead" will be very disappointed, since it centers on an evolving relationship between a zombie who calls himself "R" (Nicholas Hoult) and a young teenage girl named Julie (Teresa Palmer). It asks specific questions, such as can a zombie fall in love? Can this teenage girl love him back, despite the obstacles? Can her human friends accept this too, despite the odds being stacked up against them? All these questions and more would be answered.

Written and directed by Jonathan Levine which starts off with a zombie who is unable to remember his name narrating his experience while being a zombie. And while he admits to eating people he doesn't know why. The only thing he does know is that when he eats peoples brains that he's also acquiring some of his victims memories as well which this entire scenario has never been shown before because it's shown from the zombie's point-of-view. At the other side of the story involves a huge percent of the population has already been consumed by zombies and it's depleting little by little every time because they often lack provisions. It's lead by Grigio (John Malkovich) who sometimes select and send a small group of people for, and it was during this time is when the two main characters meet for the very first time. And while this small reinforcement group is being killed zombie "R" manages to reach and gain Julie's trust, he vows to protect her on any circumstances since he's bringing her into the environment he knows. The main question is whether or not it can convince viewers whether or not this relationship can work, and the answer is yes, because it uses many scenes of 'subtlety'. Julie starts out being afraid and after we get to see what she sees by knowing him we begin to start accepting him and we too also want him to succeed.

This is only the second film that uses the reverse psychology scenario that uses the idea about sympathizing with the zombies called "ParaNormon" and for awhile I couldn't believe what I was seeing from that film either.

3 out of 4 stars.