Horror romantic comedy provides fresh take on "Romeo and Juliet" love story
As enjoyable as “The Walking Dead” on AMC and the George A. Romero zombie movies are, the general mopery and predictability that has grown within the zombie genre has become rather tiresome. The zombies lurch, snarl and live off the scent of human flesh in the air. They always complain whenever a fence stands between them and their lunch, and they get even more frustrated when the lower half of their body gets sliced off.
So how refreshing is it that we finally get a zombie film that tells things from the zombies’ perspective? Very. Whether or not you consider it another teen pleasure after the finale of the “Twilight” series, you have to admire director/writer Jonathan Levine (“The Wackness,” “50/50”) flipping through the usual zombie movie script and bring a bloody, fresh take on the most popular horror genre of the century.
Based off Isaac Marion’s novel of the same name, “Warm Bodies” also isn’t the usual zombie comedy. The movie presents a horror adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet,” with a human girl falling in love with a zombie.
In yet another global zombie apocalypse, the world is overrun with mindless, brain-craving undead. In some unspecific location, a charismatic resistance leader Gen. Grigio (John Malkovich) has erected a huge wall around a city of surviving humans. Outside of said wall exist two threats: the “corpses” and the “bonies,” skeletal zombies that have torn off their own flesh in a serious lifestyle commitment.
Nicholas Hoult plays our Romeo-inspired protagonist R, just another “corpse” shuffling around a deserted airport in a post-apocalyptic city. It sounds like a scene off another of Romero’s films, except R’s voice-over fills the narrative with satirical observations. Like every other zombie, a hunger for human flesh occupies his head, and conversations with his best friend M (Rob Corddry), whose name bears an obvious resemblance to Mercutio, last no longer than a single grunt.
All of this changes when R meets Julie (Teresa Palmer), daughter of Gen. Grigio. After chowing down on the brains of her boyfriend, R, for some strange reason, absorbs the memories of his relationship with Julie, which jump-starts R’s dead heart back to the land of the living. He starts protecting Julie from the other zombies, thus beginning the star-crossed romance that not only leads to the iconic balcony scene, but also a final confrontation between the humans and the bonies with the in-between zombies choosing sides.
As a zombie romantic comedy, the comedy, like the tone of the entire film, is pretty much all over the place. The funniest moments occur early in the film when Hoult, who starred in “About a Boy” and played Beast in “X-Men: First Class,” bounces physical reactions off his voice-over to grand effect.
“Warm Bodies” is by no means one of the greater zombie flicks. After the whimsical start where R and Julie have their first encounter, “Warm Bodies” loses narrative momentum. When the story goes flaccid and sinks below sea level, more focus seems to be placed on musical choices that are too broad and on-the-nose. Also, the bonies are nothing more than mediocre special effects creations so cheap-looking they would make the original King Kong laugh.
The performances here are the movie’s strong suits. Hoult gives an earnest performance while Palmer slightly undercuts the tough with the light-hearted cliche. The chemistry between the two helps carry the film, even though the romance is no different than what we’ve seen from other horror/sci-fi romances like the “Twilight” films.
Malkovich makes the best of the crazy material he’s given without going overboard. It’s a strained performance, portraying the “shoot first, ask questions later” kind of leader who refuses to let his daughter date a zombie.
Despite its originality, “Walking Dead” fans may still feel the need to pass up on “Warm Bodies” as the violence and gore is more implied than graphic. It can be argued that the horror within the movie does not work with the movies’s PG-13 rating, a decision designed to bring in the younger crowd for date nights. But horror and gore really isn’t the intention here — it’s the comedy and the romance.
My biggest concern is that this trend of supernatural romances might ruin the horror genre for fans. But I still liked “Warm Bodies.” It’s fresh, it’s funny and you’ll more likely than not get your money’s worth.