Film Review: Warm Bodies

 A classic love story with an undead twist. Based on the debut novel by Isaac Marion comes a very fun film with a different take on falling in love with the undead, forbidden romance and learning to feel alive again.

In a post apocalyptic world the population has dwindled down into three different categories: Humans, who are now very few in number. "Corpses", the traditional zombie but still retaining some memory of their former life and "Bonies", who are a more evolved terrifying, skeletal form of "Corpses" where they do not have any traces of humanity at all. The story is narrated by one "corpse" in particular simply named R, who spends his time in an abandoned airport, wandering aimlessly, having somewhat near conversations with his friend M and collecting objects for his so-called home in an old airliner. During a hunt for food, R, M  and a few other members of the undead, encounter a group of human teenagers who are on a medical supply run. As the two groups clash, R comes across a beautiful human girl named Julie and after eating her boyfriends' brains, begins to fall in love with her. Keeping her alive and safe from the other "corpses", R takes Julie back to his home, where the two begin a very strange relationship and R finds himself slowly but surely coming back to life.

 

English actor Nicholas Hoult heads the cast as R, giving a very amusing performance, particularly with his interactions with other characters,  through his actions, expressions and mannerisms of the undead. Australian Native Teresa Palmer as Julie Grigio is the more serious character between the two star-crossed lovers but occasionally has moments of high spirited fun, making the beautiful young actress a delight to watch. John Malkovich rounds off the cast as Julie's father, General Grigio, in a disappointingly small but well performed role as expected from the veteran actor.

 

Complete with a great soundtrack, the sounds of Guns n' Roses, John Waite, Scorpions, Bon Iver and many more, complements this very fun, supernatural romance film which thankfully doesn't take itself too seriously. The film has all the elements of a classic cliche love story: boy meets girl, falls in love with girl but are both from very different backrounds, can be a reason for viewers not to see this film as they have all heard that story countless times. However due to the setting within a zombie apocalypse, movie goers should consider this a fun twist as a backdrop for an otherwise predictable story. Keeping along the lines of a love story, there are many allusions to arguably the most well known love story of all time, Shakespeare's "Romeo & Juliet", including the names of the two characters, R and Julie, and a certain balcony scene...

 

Falling in love with a supernatural, undead creature is nothing new in Literature and Hollywood but unlike some certain undead love stories of the past few years, "Warm Bodies" is a fresh take on the subject as it does not take it self too seriously, which in return brings a delightfully fun, comedic film that both men and women can enjoy and relate to, (yes guys you can accompany your girlfriends to the theatre and not feel embarrassed to do so),  all the while making viewers wonder what it truly means to feel alive again.