Many years ago, on a flight from Honolulu to Boston, I started to outline an idea for a movie. The idea was to create the most violent film ever, but not only in sheer amount of gore, but in that many of the deaths would be funny and memorable. And since real people being splattered all over the screen isn't that funny, clearly we were going to need zombies. Lots of them. The gag was that there was this fully-functioning town in the desert where zombies were living out their lives, as far as they knew, normally. My friend even came up with the title The Peaceful Dead. The, um, hero, was to come in and absolutely slaughter this town in a blood-soaked rage, only to find that there was a simple cure to turn them back. And while I never figured out how to change 'em (the best I could do was water, you know, because it's the desert), I know there was one thing that never crossed my mind: Love.
When I told a friend of mine that I was really excited to see Warm Bodies he said that he was totally zombied out. And while I can't even recall the last zombie movie I've seen, the last good one was likely Shaun of the Dead. And that was almost ten years ago. Ten years, man. Ten! And while I agree that certain trends seem to get played out by Hollywood (see also: pirates, torture, vampires, end of the world, to name a few), for me, the walking dead haven't. Well, except for The Walking Dead, I suppose, but I've never seen a minute of it.
But Warm Bodies isn't a zombie movie, it's a love story. And you'd be hard pressed to find anyone, my man child friend included, that doesn't like a love story. Especially a very good one.
There are many things that this flick does right, namely the cast and the setting, but what I found myself most drawn to was the relationship between zombie guy R (played with infinite sweetness by Nicholas Hoult) and Julie (an intriguing Teresa Palmer). Sure, the trailers gave a lot of it away, but their relationship develops in such a natural way, it was hard not to smile throughout. R, despite being a brain-eating corpse, reminds me of every guy I've ever seen try to court a girl (myself included). It's simple, but it's also very clever and charming.
But Warm Bodies isn't a zombie movie, it's a love story. And you'd be hard pressed to find anyone, my man child friend included, that doesn't like a love story. Especially a very good one.
There are many things that this flick does right, namely the cast and the setting, but what I found myself most drawn to was the relationship between zombie guy R (played with infinite sweetness by Nicholas Hoult) and Julie (an intriguing Teresa Palmer). Sure, the trailers gave a lot of it away, but their relationship develops in such a natural way, it was hard not to smile throughout. R, despite being a brain-eating corpse, reminds me of every guy I've ever seen try to court a girl (myself included). It's simple, but it's also very clever and charming.
