Warm Bodies

Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, Analeigh Tipton, Rob Corddry, Dave Franco, John Malkovich
Directed by: Jonathan Levine
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy, Horror, Romance
2013

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: An unusual zombie (Nicholas Hoult) with some actual thought saves a young woman (Teresa Palmer). The two become friends, which helps him further recapture some of his humanity.

Review:

Tim: I was mostly impressed with the zombie romance (who thought I'd ever write that?) film, Warm Bodies. I love the unconventional idea to do a horror romantic comedy with zombies. This seems like a wacky idea, but one that might not work. Luckily, everyone involved with this film sells the premise, and it actually works. That really surprised me- this story actually works, and it's not completely absurd. While there is a lot to like about this film, there's some big flaws too. At the end of the film, I was torn, and teetering between thinking it good, and thinking it only decent. The positives outweigh many of the negatives, but only slightly.

I found myself intrigued by the story and the characters. "R" is a very relatable character, which is all the more impressive because he is a zombie. Nicholas Hoult did a terrific job of playing him- he's certainly a zombie, and Hoult does a good job of demonstrating the limitations of that state of being. However, he's also a funny, kind, charismatic character, and for that reason, it's easy to identify with him. R is probably my favorite movie zombie (not that the bar was set particularly high). He makes the film, and deserves the lion's share of the credit. Teresa Palmer also gives a good performance, though. My wife called her "the blond Kristen Stewart", but she seems to be happier and potentially (someday) a better actress. Palmer gave a mostly good performance, but she interacts quite well with Hoult. It was fun seeing these two on screen together, and I bought their chemistry. Palmer had a hard job to do- sell the audience on the fact that she's slowly befriending a zombie. She manages to pull this off.

The supporting players are good as well. It was fun seeing Analeigh Tipton (after her good work in Crazy Stupid Love, and I always enjoy watching Dave Franco. John Malkovich seemed a bit out of place, but his presence is always welcome. I do wish he had more to actually do. Rob Corddry was fine, but I'm not sure he has the ability to make a real career for himself in Hollywood.

The story was pretty good, as the film covered all three main genres that it crosses. There's obviously a good bit of romance between Hoult and Palmer. The movie was pretty funny throughout- there's not a lot of laugh-out-loud moments, but it was fairly amusing from start to finish. There's also a few nice horror moments as well. We see a zombie rip his own face off, and the "Bonies" were pretty frightening as well. The film works because each of these elements supports the other. I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised by the story. It was engaging and interesting, and I was happy following along.

I do have some complaints, though. The script has far too many plot holes, and they're much too noticeable. Throughout the film, I found myself exclaiming how ridiculous certain parts of the film were. I have a strong ability to suspend my disbelief, but the plot and logic holes completely threw the movie off. It was very distracting and frustrating when so many things happen that just didn't make sense at all. For example, R takes a long time to learn to drive, and he's not very good at it (what zombie would be?). A short time later, we see Rob Corddry (who was part of many plot holes) immediately understand how to drive quite well. Sure, you can say he was turning human more quickly than R, but I still have major doubts about how that worked. There's a dozen other big plot holes I could point out, but I made my point- I would have really enjoyed this movie much more had the script been tighter and these gaps of logic taken out.

Still, Warm Bodies surprised me- I didn't expect to enjoy the film as much as I did. While there are frustrating logic holes throughout the film, there's so many other positives that help to keep you interesting. This will never be a great movie, but it's an entertaining, fun film, and I did enjoy it.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Shaun of the Dead, Jack the Giant Slayer, Take Me Home Tonight