Reliving The Love

Rating: 7/10 (1 February 2013)

At first glance, people might think Warm Bodies is just another Twilight where there are monsters falling in love with humans except the vampires are replaced with zombies. The truth is it's almost nothing like it. Warm Bodies is based on Isaac Marion's book with the same name that serves an intriguing context about an apocalypse that destroyed civilizations and relationships. When humanity is dead without love, as in true and genuine love. It is also built for a whole lot of satires. Surprisingly, it skims many of those and turned it into a simple straightforward romance. It's still pretty good for making the romance feel so real that most adolescent fantasy adaptations fail to portray. Still, there are interesting bits around the concept that was left out and it could have made this film a lot more extraordinary.
Yeah, it's about zombies falling in love with people but there is something beneath it. The book has some satires about society's delusional view of love and contrasts it with the genuine kind of love that can change one's life forever, but those written allegories are probably too absurd(much absurd than the concept itself) to work on screen. The film is smart to just straightforwardly shows the romance and satires the zombie genre instead. Though, the darker side of the sentiment could have also been told but in a different way. The best parts are the romantic sequences between R and Julie. Their romance is just humble. They don't need to show off how perfect they are together. It rather lets the girl express her life while the boy just stammers and shrugs in front of her, meanwhile cherishing each other around the airport as endless music montages at the second act. It may sound peculiar but their modesty makes it peculiarly sweet.
Nicholas Hoult makes it easy for us to believe that he is a zombie by his movements and grunting. While inside his mind he shows the character's earnestness and views which is endearing. Teresa Palmer keeps the romance alive since she's the only one between them is alive. It's not really hard to fall in love with her as Julie. Rob Corddry here is like a lovable zombie version of his comic relief best friend roles and it surely fits to M While director, Jonathan Levine, never leaves the love behind, the film's weakest part is when it deals with the conflicts. It somehow lacks enough sense of danger, thus the action scenes are the least interesting bits of the film. They could have added more of that runtime for some characterization to the other characters and explanation to its broken world. It might probably improve that contrived and rushed climax. Technically, the film looks good. There isn't much to say about it though since there are much better things to talk about. The special effects may not be the best but those Boneys sure look fascinatingly campy.
Warm Bodies is not subtle, though it doesn't always need to. It still gave us a pretty lovely story. Those lovely moments alone already made this a worth watching film. As a film, it lacks a little more gumption of releasing the concept's expressions, despite of that it's still a feel good entertaining film without any pretension and gets it right in providing what a remarkable romance should be. Most YA films really misses that point. Real and affecting love doesn't necessarily need to be flashy, sexy, nor snoochie boochie. Anyway, it's a refreshing escapist tale that anyone would enjoy. They all manage to keep it look literally gloomy, a little less mainstream, and have a pretty sweet humbling romance which made this strangely wonderful.