Believe it or not, this is a very good film. Warm Bodies is the latest picture from critically-acclaimed director Jonathan Levine, who is perhaps best known (and critically lauded) for 2011's cancer dramedy 50/50, which several critics placed in their top ten lists for that year. The real issue that this film was facing was to not copy the Twilight craze, and Levine pulls out another good one.
The film has good performances for sure, with Rob Corddry (Hot Tub Time Machine), Nicholas Hoult (X-Men First Class), and Teresa Palmer, (The Sorcerer's Apprentice)-- who, ironically enough, looks strangely similar to Twilight's Kristen Stewart--leading the movie's cast, but the true masterpiece of this film is the direction. Jonathan Levine takes extraordinary advantage of the cinematic medium in this picture. Throughout the film, Hoult's R--the lead zombie--narrates, showing the inner thoughts of a post-apocalyptic zombie. That way, we get character development from a character whose spoken vocabulary is as complex as that to Tarzan. But I don't praise the narration for the characterization; I praise it because the way it's used can only be done effectively through film--while Warm Bodies is based off a popular book, I can't imagine that a brief segment where a zombie starts tearing his face (non-graphically) could've had the timing like in the film. In the book, it would have been clunky writing rather than the smooth wit and charm that the medium produces. It's a simple technique, but by Jove, this is why we see movies--to experience believable events as if it were real life without having the description read to us like a blind man.
As I said before, the performances are good. Nicholas Hoult pulls off a believable zombie, but also a lovable, if flawed, person, almost like a kid film's Frankenstein's Monster (not the novel one; he's too smart and too scary), that you feel sorry for when he's misunderstood. Palmer acts realistically--in any other zombie movie, you'd be agreeing with some of her early actions, but this film puts things in perspective; following R, her actions seem overdramatic, yet, as I said before, in any other movie, you would have been on her side-- and I liked that. The stand-out star, though, is Corddry as R's friend M, being easily the movie's funniest character.
The only "negatives" that people could find in this film is its plot's familiarity and its cheese factor. But, in my mind at least, the original portions and the thoroughly funny moments and timing, outweigh the all-too-familiar love story present in the film. And as for the cheese, it's delightfully so! We already have zombies falling in love with humans (it's well-explained in the plot), so the cheesier plot points, why complain? Just go with it; it's not as if it weighs the movie down.
 |
| A funny still from a funny montage |
There's not much to criticize with the movie. It's a great stand-alone film, and a movie well-needed in this nadir of a film year. It's no Oscar material, but there was plenty to love. For me, there's not enough zing in the film to warrant a five-star rating, but I'll go close with 4.5 out of 5 stars.
So what about you? Have you seen this film, and if so, what did you think? What's your favorite zombie movie or TV show? Comment below!
No comments:
Post a Comment