Warm Bodies, must have been hard to market. The first poster was a Twlight-lite image of a Zombie and a girl embraced. Then the trailer got released and it seemed the first poster was a misstep, what the trailer showed us was a clever knockabout comedy with an element of romance. So when I stepped into screen six of the local Odeon I didn’t really know what to expect. I was hoping for the comedy version (we really don’t need another twilight) and although that’s not really what we got, I still liked what I saw.
Warm Bodies is the story of the aftermath of a zombie epidemic, R (our zombie) encounters Julie (a human survivor), and rescues her from a zombie attack. Julie sees that R is different from the other zombies, and as the two form a special relationship in their struggle for survival, R becomes increasingly more human – setting off an exciting, romantic, and often comical chain of events.
Director Jonathan Levine (50/50 and The Wackness) uses his experience in making on-screen romance not seem to soppy to turn a slightly bad taste in the mouth plot wise into a funny and tender relationship. The real success in Levine’s job is that the film is exceptionally funny without sacrificing emotional engagement for cheap laughs.
What I won’t say is that it isn’t Twilight-ish. It seems stupid to not point out the comparisons, both are based on best selling teen novels about supernatural beings falling in love with beautiful girls. Although the comparisons are clear to see, they never prove a problem. Warm Bodies doesn’t feel like a cheap pile of crap, it isn’t a Po-faced, sullen-cullen mope-fest. And most importantly it embraces its context, it seems to revel in the fact that it’s a zombie film, unlike Twilight, it doesn’t feel a need to piss all over the mythology of its hero.
The whole film is rather endearing, Nicholas Hoult does a great job, bringing life to the undead and another special mention goes’ to Rob Corddry who for the first time I really enjoyed on screen.
Falling somewhere between Zombieland and the skewed romance of (500) Days Of Summer, this managed to make the end of the world seem charming. Over all Warm Bodies is just that, Warm.
Callum Stewart
