Not Terrible, but Forgettable Wasted Potential

Rating: 4/10 (10 October 2019)

Warm Bodies was a movie that I really wanted to like and one that I thought I'd really like. A zombie love story is a concept that is pretty promising. You would think it would be comedic, clever, cute, and creative. However, I found it to be none of these things. I found Warm Bodies to be boring, predictable, and uninspired.
I feel like the movie is trying to advertise itself as "Not your typical romance story." But that's exactly what it feels like. I personally don't feel any connection between the two characters. Neither of them are particularly likeable, which is a problem when the whole story revolves around those two characters. What's even more frustrating is that I think R could have been a really lovable character. R, like the other zombies, can only speak in broken English, but the audience can hear his internal dialogue. This specific reason is why R is unlikeable. There's something so endearing about monstrous characters with a soft side, and all of that is thrown away when they make him such a main character for a teen romantic comedy. As for the love interest, Julie, she's even worse. There is no level of relatability to attach to her. That's not saying that every character should be relatable or even likeable, but like I said: The movie revolves around these two.
Warm Bodies is extremely predictable and cliche. And I hate the word "cliche" but it's really the only word to use here. Every plot point, every scene, every bit of dialogue can be seen ahead from the very start. This may seem like an inconvenient factor that wouldn't affect the movie, but it does. Just because there's zombies, that doesn't make it at all creative. In fact, it feels like one of the least creative movies I've seen in a long time.
In conclusion, Warm Bodies is... not good. I'm not going to say that this is one of the worst films ever because it's not by any means. There are many films that are technically worse. What Warm Bodies is, is forgettable wasted material.