There are some who say that the zombie genre has burnt itself out, with too many iterations, too much of the same, over and over again. Much like vampires, it feels like there is only so much Hollywood can do before the genre begins to eat itself and cease to maintain any kind of effectiveness. Once that happens, we’re stuck with milquetoast variations, teeth-grindingly painful takes on the genre that inevitably will reduce it to getting the Twilight treatment. Zombies are no longer a part of the underground, no more the genre of midnight horror marathons where we winnow away our hours debating the worthiness of Savini’s Night of the Living Dead remake (it is), or the sad state of Romero’s Dead series (they are), or the merits of Fulci’s works(Zombi 2 only). They’re mainstream as hell, with a TV show and everything, and there’s pretty much no tale left to tell.
Enter Jonathan Levine’s Warm Bodies. Based on the debut novel by Isaac Marion and directed by Levine, Warm Bodies feels at first glance like the zombie version of Twilight, if such an abomination were possible. That said, Warm Bodies may revolve around the living-dead, but the 97 minutes sure show a hell of a lot of heart and intelligence. Granted, the root of the assorted of themes woven in are pulled from cinemas’ past; but the piecing together of them, or reanimation if you will, sure made for a fresh and inspiring viewing.
The post-apocalyptic film is narrated from the point-of-view of a former 20-something hoodied slacker who is now among the many walking dead. “R”, as he comes to be called, can’t remember his name but trudges around the abandoned airport with his fellow zombies, like ex-family man “M” who he grunts wannabe conversations with, wishing there was more to his life … afterlife … existence. The worst among them are the “bonies,” deadly zombies overcome by their hunger and have lost most of their former human form. At the end of each day, R retreats to an empty airliner where his Wall-E-like hoarder nature makes him a collector of old vinyl and trinkets of all sorts and sizes.
Within the walled city center where the living civilization remains, Colonel Grigio leads the survivors and human resistance. His dedicated daughter Julie is one of his most promising followers. While leading an armed supply scouting run on the other side of the wall with her ex-boyfriend Perry and bestie Nora, they run into R and his hungry friends out for brains. Upon spotting Julie, the instantly-smitten R spares her life during the attack and leads her away from danger to his airliner digs.
While spending few days together out of harm’s way, the two begin to click and the shades of Shakespeare start to come out. R continuously protects Julie and begins to feel different on the inside. At the same time, Julie begins to see something different about this particular zombie and sees the change going on. As it turns out, a little love and affection is slowly “curing” R of their lifelessness. Nevertheless, there affection is unheard of and forbidden. What does this mean for potential romance? What does this mean for the population and future survival? Those are the twists offered by the film.
Now the one angle that gets the most attention is the “Beauty and the Beast” arc between Nicolas Hoult (as R) and Teresa Palmer (Julie). What makes this unique is that although Hoult’s mannerisms as the aware zombie are spot-on and balanced, his blunt narration – which only the audience hears – sells the semi-goofy scenarios onscreen. To be clear though, this is not a full-blown spoof by any means. It actually plays similar to what the godfather of the zombie movie, George A. Romero, did within his classic Living-Dead pieces. While the basic elements of a zombie story are present, the social commentary – delivered through all the characters’ actions (this cast includes Rob Corddry as a zombie, and Analeigh Tipton and James Franco as Julie’s friends) – is the meat of the tale. There’s a deeper meaning at play here and that’s what enables the provocative for the audience to latch onto. The clever jokes and/or skit-like situations the cast is placed in from time-to-time is just a welcomed bonus that hits the right note nearly every time.
Overall, Warm Bodies does get by on the fact that is feels different, and therefore, allows one to look over its minor flaws (similar to one of the main themes found in the flick). Having said that, it functions better than most flicks that are afraid to venture out into new territory, and, it is quite engaging all-around. Don’t have any plans for you and your sweetie tonight? Take a trip to the whatever-plex and catch this movie.