People really love zombies, don’t they? Zombies have spawned their own genre, generating video games, films and television shows. Hell, “Community” even did a zombie episode, so that means they are officially a staple of pop culture — and ripe for parody. Some say zombies are on their way out because, let’s face it, most of the material is pretty been-there-done-that nowadays. But “Warm Bodies” is a refreshingly charming spin on the stereotypical zombie movie, and it serves as proof that this genre might not be finished with us just yet.
“Warm Bodies” is adapted from a book written by Isaac Marion. The movie version is written and directed by Jonathan Levine, whose last project, “50/50,” was one of the best movies of 2011. Levine is quickly becoming one of my favorite modern-day directors due to his ability to blend humor and drama with just enough sincerity to make you want to take it all seriously.
Nicholas Hoult stars as R, a so-called “corpse” living in a post-apocalyptic world with his fellow corpses. R may be a pasty zombie, but he still has thoughts, a few feelings here and there, and a wry sense of humor that keeps the movie on track. In the film, the non-zombies have built a giant wall around the city to keep corpses out but still have to send scouts out for supplies. It’s during one such trip that R comes across Julie, a human played by Teresa Palmer and, after eating her boyfriend’s brain, R decides she’s worth saving from his corpse-y friends. How sweet.
Thus begins R’s path to redemption. As he and Julie bond over his vinyl collection (zombies can be hipsters, too) and his increasing ability to communicate, the human side of him starts to reappear. He becomes self-aware. He feels temperature, and he even dreams. The changes in R start to affect the corpses around him, including R’s best friend M (Rob Corddry). And while no movie has ever been quite so obvious with its “all you need is love” message, “Warm Bodies” still manages to outweigh the cheese with charm.
Hoult does a stellar job of emoting, seeing as he’s basically a walking vegetable for the first third of the movie and is therefore unable to talk about his feelings. The rest of the cast is pretty strong too, with brief-but-solid performances by Dave Franco, Analeigh Tipton and John Malkovich.
Bonus points go to Teresa Palmer’s portrayal of Julie, which was an appropriately flustered one given that Julie clearly finds herself thinking about how cute her zombie captor was on more than one occasion. Yep, “Warm Bodies” pulled a “Beauty and the Beast.” It made you forget to blame Stockholm syndrome for the love story.
The movie was mostly endearingly cheesy, so it might come as a surprise that parts of it will definitely scare the crap out of you. While the corpses are kind of rough looking, they’re nothing compared to the Bonies. Good lord, the Bonies. These are a group of characters in the film that represent the other less “princely” end of the corpse spectrum. Once corpses give up all hope, they peel their skin off and becomes Bonies, and they are like scarier, faster and less-clothed versions of the grim reaper. You see one such corpse peel the skin off its face, and you’ll want to barf a little bit. But then R will pop up and say “don’t pick at it, you’re making it worse!” Then you’ll remember that, at its heart, the movie’s still a comedy.
“Warm Bodies” gets by with the charisma of its star and the cutesiness of the love story at the basis of it all. The dialogue can get a little slow and awkward in places, but it fits since R is trying to teach himself how to talk again. The humor was pretty steady, too.
All in all, I’d say that this foray into the zombie romance genre was a success. Let’s hope that Hollywood doesn’t find a way to run it mercilessly into the ground, like it’s been known to do with a certain vampire saga that shall remain unnamed. “Warm Bodies” is one of the better movies to come out in 2013 so far, and it’s definitely worth a trip to the theater.
