Written by: Jonathan Levine
Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, Rob Corddry, Dave Franco, Lio Tipton, Cory Hardrict
Rating: [3.5/5]
Through all forms of media, zombie stories have maintained a healthy level of level of popularity and have introduced all sorts of zombies to the screen. Those that move like molasses and those that could challenge Usain Bolt in a sprinting competition. We’ve seen the whole gamut but Warm Bodies definitely stands out for the mere fact that it demonstrates these zombies having feelings. By taking us inside the mind of a zombie this film not only presents a refreshing take on this genre but does so with real heart.
Well into a zombie apocalypse, these undead just walk around aimlessly waiting for the next opportunity to devour some human flesh. R (Nicholas Hoult), one of those zombies, has thoughts about the strange mundanity of living like a zombie, which gets upended when they run into humans and he gains an attraction to Julie (Teresa Palmer). After saving her from the other zombies, they begin to learn R is reverting back to humanity.
Operating within the zombie apocalypse genre on top of serving as the strangest adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet” to date, Warm Bodies certainly has this unique quality to it that allows the film to stand out seeing as it takes the audience into the mind of a zombie. From all of the zombie films and shows people watch, I’m sure none of them ever thought to stop and think about what goes through the mind of the undead. Well, this film certainly provides it, and through R we see an undead creature still trying to find connection and meaning to his existence. He tries to form friendships with other zombies and has a legitimate fear of the far more scary and fargone Boneys indicating these creatures very much still have feelings. R yearns for more in life, which explains why he enjoys eating brains considering he gets visions of the life of the individual’s brain meaning he further wants to experience things. An interesting approach for sure, but the way the film then navigates its romantic elements makes it even more intriguing.
Telling the story of unlikely love as seen in Shakespeare’s tale and then transplanting that to a zombie and a human certainly presents some thinking outside of the box, but it certainly presents many sweet moments to take in. Julie quickly goes through a seismic shift in her view of zombies as she experiences time with R from something to fear to the other end of the spectrum of falling in love with him. The film has an uphill battle in convincing the audience of this working as a romance but as R gets closer to reverting back to humanity, it makes a compelling case.
As a romantic comedy of sorts, Warm Bodies has many funny moments on top of those that will cause some fright seeing as we’re still dealing with zombies. Much of the comedy occurs in the first act where we witness R’s life as a zombie further displaying how these zombies essentially continue their lives in some ways. R and his gaggle of zombies hang out at an airport and each time he walks through security, there’s the zombie there who still waves the wand as if it’s still doing its job before turning into the undead. It well and truly speaks to the cycles one lives in and seemingly cannot escape even when one’s heart stops bleeding. Fairly bleak the more thought gets put into it but it surely delivers on the comedy it sought to display.
While unconventional as it gets with Shakespeare adaptations, Warm Bodies creates a lovely little romantic comedy with a wildly different take on the way zombies and humans could possibly coexist without fear. We have a fun performance by Nicholas Hoult as the central zombie as he does quite well as an undead creature and even better than some romantic comedy leads playing humans. He helps sell the romantic and comedic moments of the film as we dive into this strange world. Plenty to appreciate here as it succeeds in both entertaining but also introducing a new look at zombies.
Films with Josh 
