Warm Bodies

Get out your BRAAAAAAIIIIIINNNSSS we're reviewing Warm Bodies!

Isn't he dreamy ladies? Ladies? Where did you go?

R(Nicholas Hoult) is a zombie who just wants to connect with people. After meeting Julie(Teresa Palmer) in a zombie attack, he falls in love, takes her back to his place to keep her safe, and starts to see some strange changes in himself.
I suppose you would call Warm Bodies the Twilight of the zombie mythos, but man is it so much better than Twilight. I mean it's still very sappy and cute and lovey dovey, but it's no comparison considering Warm Bodies is a legitimately good movie and Twilight is well...Twilight.

For one thing, Warm Bodies is smarter than it has any right to be. It has a dark humor in the beginning, comparing the world as it is now to what it used to be. R laments that zombies just shuffle around and wish they could connect to each other, while portraying how we act now, walking through life not communicating with anyone and just chatting on our iphones and tablets. There are a handful of nice parallels featured that I love. This is a movie that has slow zombies and humans fighting fast zombies! You're welcome, everyone who hates fast zombies.

Analeigh Tipton is in this! Teresa who?

And yes, it is as soppy as "love cures all" and "love will bring you back from the dead".  It's mushy and somehow amazing. I usually turn away from any other kind of romantic relationship(especially with the generic quirky guy and the generic blonde), but somehow it works here. LOVE FOUND A WAY OK GEEZ GET OFF MY BACK SPORTS ACTION MURDER DEATH. Anyways, it's a pretty nice love story. I'm kind of surprised they didn't release this on Valentine's Day because it's probably the only romantic movie out that's worth seeing. If you have to take your significant other to a soppy romantic movie, it should at least have some zombie action, right? Plus, no one thought of the slogan, "Expierience Z-Day on V-Day!" Really guys? You jerks are slacking.

R's voiceover is pretty great and fun to listen to. Usually a voiceover like this filled with exposition doesn't work, but there's so much character here you really feel as though he wants to just talk, but he can't.  That reminds me of that famous short story, I have no mouth and I must exposit. Anyways, Hoult is pretty great as R all around. If there is a category for "best actor pretending to be a zombie slowly becoming human" in the Oscars, he should definietly get it.  Rob Corddry as M, R's best zombie mate, is pretty fun too.  Palmer does a good job of dealing with her situation in a realistic way while still being fairly badass.  And hey, Analeigh Tipton is in this! I like her in things. The only bald spot of the cast is John Malkovich as the leader/father.  He does ok, but considering he's John Malkovich, I was expecting him to be a little more crazy and wild. He's much more reserved than I'd like him to be. We're talking about John Malkovich, who was in Being John Malkovich; there's a certain standard of Malkovich I expect from my Malkovich. It's possible I just like saying Malkovich.

Malcovich!

The movie has a different take and provides reasons for zombies doing what they do, humanizing them more than usual zombie movies. Does it break the classic zombie mold and ruin them for generations like Twilight did for vampires? Not really. Not anymore than having zombies in every Batdamn movie, tv show or comic ever did. And probably not any more than World War Z is going to. Yeesh.

Is there a lot of action? There's some action. There's a decent amount of action. Mostly in the beginning and the finale, unlike what's advertised. And strangely, I'm ok with that. The movie is well paced enough that I like how much time they spend building the relationship between R and Julie.

The effects are pretty decent. The movie has an overal oppresive atmosphere of the post apocalypse that could fit any other apocalypse movie, the make-up of the corpses is nice, and the animation of the bonies is well animated. I especially like when you get up close to the bonies and you can see their skull nostril holes breathing. Pretty creepy. And it has a hip indie soundtrack! Kind of surpsied they didn't put a Warm Bodies OST out, but considering all the popular indie music they have, maybe they couldn't get the rights? A shame I say!

I really can't say why I love Warm Bodies so much. Perhaps it's got an original enough take that I don't mind the lovey dovey stuff. It's just a fun cute zombie love story. If you're going to see a romantic movie this Valentine's Day(or Single Awareness Day) make it a romantic zombie movie!

THE GOOD: Cute, fun story, interesting new take on zombies, good acting, nice effects, funnny, great soundtrack.

THE BAD: Might be a bit too soppy for some, Malkovich was not Malkoviching enough.

THE VERDICT: $$$$$ See it! Multiple times! I could see it at least twice more. It's a cute fun movie that's worth repeated viewings. And if you still love zombies, you can't go wrong here! Highly recommended!

MOVIES LIKE IT: Shawn of the Dead, Creature from the Black Lagoon, King Kong, Dead Heads

ONE-SCENE METAPHOR: R is trying to bond with Julie in his little airplane hideaway. "Ok don't be creepy, don't be creepy, don't be creepy" He thinks as he just sort of awkwardly stares at her. Man how does this movie so GET my dating life?