Movie Review: Warm Bodies (2013)

Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer and John Malkovich

Directed by: Jonathan Levine

During a zombie infection that has wiped out most of humanity R is an unusual zombie that saves a girl from an attack that he is part of. He has an urge to protect her and look after her while regaining some of his old human feelings. It’s his relationship with the rescued girl that sets in motion the possible cure for the undead.

So after a small holiday away in the sun where I spent a large portion of my time sitting on a beach or having fun in the ocean I’m back to once again write movie reviews. It was a little break that I needed and allowed me to relax and recharge without any interference from technology for the most part so I decided not to watch any movies although I did have some downloaded on my phone ready to watch, just encase it rained. One of those movies was Warm Bodies which I managed to watch today on the commute back to work.

Warm Bodies is a different take on the zombie apocalypse than anything I’ve seen before. It was a strange combination of horror, romance and comedy which weirdly worked and came together perfectly. The story revolves around R (Nicholas Hoult) who is a zombie that is aware he’s a zombie but wants to be something different. R and a group of zombies hit a party of scavengers seeking medical supplies to take back to the civilised, sealed off city. He ends up eating the brains of Jerry (Dave Franco) which enables him to consume some of his memories and this is where he meets his girlfriend Julie (Teresa Palmer). He sees her in Jerry’s memories and something inside of R clicks and he sets out to protect her and keep her safe from the rest of the zombie population. Both R and Julie form a strange bond which makes R feel a little more human as time passes and as their interactions are witnessed by other zombies, they begin to have flashbacks and dreams of their own which is something they never had before. Believing they have stumbled across a potential cure for the undead, R and Julie must convince the rest of the humans to fight with the zombies and not against them as a darker threat looms in the form of Boneys, a zombie that has been starved for so long it transforms into a skeleton like creature.

Nicholas Hoult was great as he so often is as he stars as R. He was greatly funny and was able to humanise a zombie brilliantly which is something that I haven’t seen before in other zombie flicks. His chemistry with Teresa Palmer needed to be great and it was as it’s the one thing that makes R’s transformation believable. While the rest of the cast didn’t have hugely important roles as the story solely focuses on R and Julie but when they were called upon each member did a solid job. Actors such as John Malkovich and Rob Corddry were very good in their supporting roles and Analeigh Tipton who is somebody I’ve criticised in the past for her performance in Two Night Stand was pretty decent also. The soundtrack was also integral in helping set the mood of scenes involving R and Julie due to R being an emotionless zombie and I really feel that each song used was exceptionally chosen and really aided the movie’s overall quality.

While there wasn’t much in the way of actual horror within Warm Bodies, The Boneys did look quite imposing and if they were used in a more traditional horror movie they would be quite frightening. There was no use of cheap jump scares as so many horrors nowadays rely on as this movie was more about the humanisation of R and the other zombies which was really enjoyable to watch and was a nice surprise as I didn’t know quite what to expect from this movie. My main criticism of Warm Bodies is that the ending just sort of happened, everything just seemed to fall in place rather easily without any real struggles or worries and then it was over. While it was a nice heart warming story, quite literally, at no point did I ever feel that R and Julie were in any real danger.

Overall, Warm Bodies was an enjoyable movie which offered a nice story of acceptance and trust. Nicholas Hoult was great as was Teresa Palmer and although the ending did seem a little rushed and easy the movie was still a really good watch.

7/10