Surprisingly fleshed out, heartwarming, self-aware and not overly-romanticised teen romance story.

Rating: 8/10 (22 April 2020)

Expecting a Twilight-inspired romanticised version of another well-known supernatural concept that are zombies with an underdeveloped cliched post-apocalyptic setting, the movie surprises the audience with a well-realised world with a light-hearted and not overly-romantic love story with a deeper relevance to the overall status quo than most.
While movies of the same "genre" portray a love story centered in the unlikely relationship between two different "species" of creatures, this movie approaches it by deconstructing, in a way, the "zombie science" behind not in a way that could scientifically explain the logic behind the decisions it makes throughout the movie but rather by applying a viable approach to a more visceral cure to the zombies.
The film is not meant to be taken too seriously as it's many inconsistencies and unrealistic portrayal of the zombies provide a more plausible chance for both the leads to have a resonating romance. However, the story feels well-developed thanks to the inclusion of other creatures and characters that provide more layers to the story making it possible for it to have more to say than simply study the possibilites of a cross-species romance.
While some of the supporting characters may feel bland and underdeveloped the mere presence and attempt at a backstory in all of them and the fact they have a purpose to the story makes it not only welcomed but engaging. Some situations would seem unlikely and there are some scenes that do feel misplaced as their sole purpose do reminisce of teen movie-tropes like the typical makeover scene or several of the slightly abused montage scenes.
Moreover, while at first the overall execution of zombie mannerisms such as growling, slow walking and dismembering due to rotting flesh began to lack as the plot unraveled, rather than becoming an overlooked inconsistency the movie stands out for providing a reasonable explanation pertaining to the core of the story. And the film provides a sense of finality and earned romance between the two leads as it provides a conclusion to the problem of the zombie apocalypse.
Regardless of whether the novel it's based on belongs to a saga of more books, the film provides a self-contained decently fleshed out story that benefits from not receiving follow-ups to its story as it has told everything it needed in a single film. While some matters and situations needed of a little more development, the movie decides to rush through them in order to meet the runtime. Matters that could have benefited from those extra minutes are instead tailored to allow a consistent story and a good pacing to a story that is too creative to fit in only one film.
IN CONCLUSION, the movie is a well-realized, endearing and light-hearted story of two teens that fall in love in an unfashionable way but whose story holds more weight in the overal story and outcome of the setting it takes place. It isn't too deep or has relevant themes to learn from or communicate to the audience, it's self-contained and affects solely in the story that it's trying to tell. But it's a feel-good and uplifting movie.