Warm Bodies

 

               Love knows no color, age, or gender. Love doesn't care if you are human. We have seen love conquer all, even vampires and humans fall in love, so why let a little thing like being dead get in the way of falling in love? With the popularly of zombies, you had to know a zombie love story was going to come, the only question is it just a dead man walking? I will try to withhold any more bad “dead” jokes during this review, but will only try. Now what is a zombie romance about?  Well, let me tell you.

        R (Nicholas Hoult) is a dead teenager, it seems some plague engulfed the earth and made most of the population the walking dead. There are still regular people, because no zombie movie is any fun without survivors. The dead seem to hang around the airport, walking around looking pretty normal, well except for their walk and that the grunt instead of talking. The living on the other hand has built a wall around where they live, but venture outside it for supplies. Grigio (John Malkovich) is the leader of this living community, and he has a hatred for the walking dead. He sends his daughter Julie (Teresa Palmer) out with a group of other teenagers to find medical supplies. Well let me tell you that was the wrong thing to do, because they run into a group of zombies.  A fight ensues and all the humans are getting eaten, but then something happens when R sees Julie.  Somehow Julie ignites life again inside R and slowly his heart starts to beat again. R knows something is different and he somehow passes it to his zombie friend M (Rob Corddry). It seems now a large group are becoming alive again, and all because of the love R discovered.

   I really enjoy zombie movies, everything from “Day of the Dead” to “The Walking Dead”, so a zombie love story sounded good to me.  I knew there would be a slight problem in a zombie love story though, how would he express his love, when all he can do is grunt? Now there lies my biggest problem with this movie, all the grunting that is suppose to pass as talking. Writer and director Jonathan Levine did great with the inner monologue that R has with himself, but as soon as he attempts to talk, it loses me. Hey I am not being insensitive, I want zombies to be able to fall in love, but let’s face it they are dead. I think we have reached a new low in the world of romantic comedies, and I feel we can only go up from here. “Warm Bodies” is not a terrible movie; it is just difficult to watch during parts of it. I say we let the dead just want to eat the living, not love them, because for me this movie was dead on arrival.

 Brian Taylor