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| "I guess we are all waiting for something" I do not own the copyright to this image |
I give this film a seven out of
ten. A twist on a horror-rom-com this movie tells the tale, through a
witty-sarcastic voiceover of a zombie named ‘R’ (Nicholas Hoult) and how he
falls in love with a girl, Julie (Teresa Palmer). It was more then halfway
through the film when R is standing under Julie’s balcony in the Human Compound
that you make the distinct connection that director and writer Jonathon Levine
wanted us to see R as Romeo and Julie as Juliet, star-crossed lovers in a world
of the last surviving humans verses zombies.
What kept
me intrigued with this film was the fact we had the perspective of a young
zombie (who frankly looked like a pale, dark haired James Dean) through his
voiceovers. It’s only then we understand why they shuffle around, how they
communicate especially with his ‘best-friend-zombie’ M, why they eat brains (to
get human memories so they feel more alive) and how they try and live. R never
tells us how the apocalypse happened to make them zombies because he doesn’t
remember himself and acts like it’s not something to worry about so as the
audience we don’t worry either. He does make connections through the very
dreary and grey world that surrounds him by reflecting what could have been,
showing he is still in touch with his human side. There were great open establishing
shots of him in the airport where most zombies come to gather. “Guess we are
all waiting for something” R remarks, which is true because the airport is a
place for interaction and for going places, deep down the zombies just want to
go somewhere, to interact, to connect to the world again so it was very
symbolic. However, for those zombies who lose the will to hope for a change,
they slowly deteriorate and become Bonies, very fast skeletal beings that are
very frightening and even the zombies don’t like them.
On an
‘feeding frenzy’ is when the zombies run into the human party, where Julie and
her friends Nora (Analeigh Tipton) and Perry (Dave Franco) are there trying to
fight them off. One look at Julie and R is smitten and doesn’t dare try to hurt
her instead he has the urge to protect her, showing a change in him. However
Perry is not so lucky and R eats his brains to retain his memories, and get to
know Julie at the same time but he also ‘saves’ Perry because eating his brains
allows him to not rise up again as a zombie. These subtle things show the
audience how perspective he is, and how there is a spark of a life still within
him. Even when he takes Julie back to his airplane, he slowly begins to speak
to her and at the end of the night we zoom in to his heart and see it beat
once, showing there is an absolute change in him and Julie is the key. With her he begins to feel again and you are
eagerly awaiting each moment of interaction to see if this cold zombie will
somehow turn into a warm (and even more lovable) human being.
The
cinematography was beautifully done especially with comparing the world of the
zombies in the airport to the world of the humans in the Human Compound. For example
the dark v. light, death v. life aspects and motifs are done through setting
and even through flashbacks, using brighter tints to compare the old world
verse the reality of the new world of zombies. The wide shots on the worlds
around them are deeply introspective and I felt surrounded in their world,
which really brings this movie to life.
Also the acting was amazing as
well. Nicholas Hoult stole the show as a struggling to be human again zombie
and can be very comical and cute in the various things he does as a zombie,
like trying to talk to Julie and saying in his voice over, ‘Don’t be creepy. Don’t
be creepy.” Teresa Palmer was marvelous as well, not adhering to the damsel in
distress rules but as a tough chick trying to understand R and his ways and
ultimately being the key between both worlds. Every time those two sharing the
frame you know something magical will spark.
So have a laugh and watch Warm Bodies and enjoy as you get to see
a side of a zombie you have never seen before, from his own eyes.
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