Warm Bodies Review

Getting warmer and warmer

 Full, spoiler-free review by Isaac Handelman

Warm Bodies really doesn’t make much sense. I mean, just take a look at the premise; a zombie falls in love with a human girl and proceeds to slowly come back to life. Not only is the setup implausible (even by zombie lore standards), but it sounds outrageous to the point of becoming just plain silly. Well, much of the time, Warm Bodies is just that: silly. What’s surprising, however, is how sweet the film manages to become by its conclusion, and the lengths to which it manages to endear its characters -- living and dead alike.

In the post-zombie-apocalyptic world of Warm Bodies, the undead (dubbed “corpses”) still retain basic human features. They possess rudimentary hand-eye coordination, they can think for themselves, and they can even communicate using fragmented sentences in croaky whispers. Of course, the corpses still have an insatiable desire to -- you guessed it -- eat brains, making cooperation between the surviving humans and the corpses a difficult proposition. Warm Bodies centers on a corpse who can’t remember his name, save for the first letter: “R”. During a routine attack on a group of survivors, R (Nicholas Hoult) stumbles upon a human girl named Julie (Teresa Palmer), and instead of devouring her flesh, he decides to rescue her from certain doom by disembowelment. After Julie has overcome the initial shock of being saved by a corpse, R begins attempting to convince her that he -- and perhaps his entire “species” -- is beginning to change in some way, leading to the duo developing an unlikely bond.

Any film that selects a zombie as its main protagonist has one rather daunting hurdle to overcome before it can accomplish anything at all: how do you meld a likable character from a brainless, bloodthirsty goon? At first, Warm Bodies seems to fail at this odd form of endearment. Not to spoil anything, but suffice to say that R partakes in a seemingly unforgivable act early on in the film, and I was convinced that I would never be led to like the zombie in any capacity, let alone root for him. But Warm Bodies proved me wrong. By the film’s end, R has undergone a considerable metamorphosis -- as life begins to seep back into him, he simultaneously becomes more and more viable as a protagonist. It’s impressive that the screenwriters were able to draw this parallel and consistently make it work, and the character’s transformation is a solid example of the film’s ingenuity. Julie’s character isn’t quite as complex, but she is depicted as a perfectly capable young woman who doesn’t necessarily depend on her love interest to swoop down and rescue her every time she finds herself in a crisis (read: she’s not Bella Swan). 

Though it’s far from horror territory, Warm Bodies is definitely not a lovey-dovey romance, either. Relative to other zombies pics, straight up gore is rather scarce here, but there’s plenty of zombie-head-shooting, plenty of brain-eating and quite a few subtly disturbing touches (for instance, R stores a handful of brains in his pocket for intermittent snacking). And none of that is touching on the “bonies”, hellish nightmare creatures which serve as the film’s main antagonists.

There’s plenty of evidence contained within Warm Bodies to suggest that the filmmakers (or perhaps the writer of the source novel) aren’t the biggest followers of zombie fiction. If you’re a fan of zombie fiction like me, you’ll surely be annoyed by the numerous idiosyncratic, “incorrect” zombie portrayals when compared to almost all other films of the genre. By its close, I was charmed enough by Warm Bodies to mostly forgive these petty complaints, but they existed in the back of my mind throughout the experience nonetheless. 

Furthermore, Warm Bodies isn’t always a consistent tonal experience. It’s tragic one moment, comedic the next and then takes a stab at emotional poignancy. That’s not necessarily a criticism in and of itself, but sometimes Warm Bodies moves along at a pace that’s a bit too brisk for its own good, resulting in some jarring moments -- and it would be perfectly reasonable to request a bit more meat on the film’s bones (no pun intended), as it clocks in at a reasonably short ninety-seven minutes.

Despite its ridiculous premise, cliched romantic elements, and occasional inability to retain coherence, Warm Bodies is a welcome change of pace from the usual Twilight-esque breed of mythical-creature romances. I went in expecting a run-of-the-mill “romantic-comedy, but with zombies!” In this respect, Warm Bodies surprised me with its creativity. By its close, the film comes to a satisfying conclusion with an amusing, uplifting message. Though on its exterior it would be easy to dismiss Warm Bodies as just another far-fetched teen romance, that would be a mistake. It’s flawed but unabashedly sweet and hugely enjoyable.

Final Score:

7.5/10

“Very Good”