{"id":28316,"date":"2013-08-12T07:56:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-12T14:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=28316"},"modified":"2013-08-12T07:56:00","modified_gmt":"2013-08-12T14:56:00","slug":"warm-bodies-jonathan-levine-2013-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=28316","title":{"rendered":"Warm Bodies (Jonathan Levine, 2013): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Mallarie Stevens. Viewed on Blu-ray Disc.<\/p>\n

\"\"Is it possible to love the dead? \u00a0Of course. \u00a0But what about the undead?\u00a0 Maybe.\u00a0 In the trendy tween world of Twilight <\/i>(2008), True Blood <\/i>(2008), and Teen Wolf <\/i>(2011), a vicious monster boyfriend is not only acceptable; it\u2019s practically mandatory.\u00a0 Young, beautiful, and tantalizingly dangerous, these vampires and werewolves are not exactly reminiscent of Bram Stoker\u2019s Dracula<\/i> (1897) or Dr. Frankenstein\u2019s monster (Shelley 1818), the more classic monsters of the literature world.\u00a0 Instead, they are the new wave of the teen bad boy love interest \u2013 romantic, desirable, and every parent\u2019s worst nightmare.\u00a0 Surprisingly witty and original, Warm<\/i> Bodies<\/i> (2013) is the next installment in the film world\u2019s still-evolving monster romance genre.<\/p>\n

R (Nicholas Hoult) is an uncommonly contemplative zombie in a post-apocalyptic world overcome by \u201ccorpses\u201d (zombies) and \u201cboneys\u201d (further decomposed and far more frightening zombies).\u00a0 Living humans must stay confined within a walled-in portion of the city or risk being attacked and killed.\u00a0 When Julie (Teresa Palmer), the hardened yet hopeful daughter of the city\u2019s military-centric leader (John Malkovich), ventures out on a seemingly routine run for medical supplies she and her friends are ambushed by a group of hungry corpses, R among them.\u00a0 Though most of her group is killed, including her then-boyfriend Perry (Dave Franco), Julie is saved by R, who promises; \u201ckeep you safe\u201d. \u00a0As Julie, and subsequently the audience, develops an unexpected endearment to R while in his care, she wonders \u201cwhy me?\u201d \u00a0In the true spirit of the monster romance, Warm Bodies<\/i> brings humanistic qualities to the creature that would otherwise inspire only fear and disgust in the film\u2019s heroine.\u00a0 Can a zombie be overcome by compassion and emotion?\u00a0 Can he fall in love with the human that would otherwise be nothing more than food?<\/p>\n

Though this monster-versus-human approach has seen much success in the vampire subgenre of the sci fi world, Warm Bodies<\/i> is the first film to, not only utilize a zombie as the lovable monster character, but to also tell the story from his perspective.\u00a0 The use of R\u2019s internal monologue as voice-over provides both important background information and allows the audience insight into the complexities of his thinking, which is obviously more human than zombie.\u00a0 He, along with Julie\u2019s best friend Nora (Analeigh Tipton), provides much of the film\u2019s clever and relatable comedy.\u00a0 Additional outstanding performances by Teresa Palmer as Julie and Rob Corrdry as R\u2019s best zombie friend, M further contribute to a convincing plot development from the seemingly inevitable deterioration of the world into a zombie wasteland to the atmosphere of hope mutually forged by R and Julie.\u00a0 Director Jonathan Levine even goes so far as to represent the lead characters as embodiments of Romeo and Juliet (where R is Romeo and Julie is Juliet), existing on opposing sides of an ongoing, perhaps senseless, battle.\u00a0 From Guns \u2018N Roses to Springsteen, Dylan, and even \u201cRock you like a Hurricane\u201d by the Scorpions (1984), Levine further delights with a soundtrack that\u2019s hard to beat.<\/p>\n

Of course, the film is not without its moments of not-another-teen-movie idiosyncrasies and minor plot holes. \u00a0There is the quintessential awkward young man hoping to win the heart of the beautiful young woman.\u00a0 The young woman\u2019s father is overbearing and protective.\u00a0 Undoubtedly, it is a bit unlikely that a smart, self-assured young woman would develop a relationship, romantic or otherwise, with her boyfriend\u2019s killer.\u00a0 If these trivialities (the film does explain them, at least) can be overlooked, however, Warm Bodies<\/i> is an admirable addition to the film libraries of both the zombie apocalypse movie aficionado and the casual rom com viewer.\u00a0 Is the rampant virus-like spread of the zombie apocalypse inevitable? \u00a0Is love the cure?\u00a0 Is there a deeper meaning for society here? \u00a0Maybe.\u00a0 In any case, it Warm Bodies<\/i> is another example of why sci fi is not just for nerds anymore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Mallarie Stevens. Viewed on Blu-ray Disc. Is it possible to love the dead? \u00a0Of course. \u00a0But what about the undead?\u00a0 Maybe.\u00a0 In the trendy tween world of Twilight (2008), True Blood (2008), and Teen Wolf (2011), a vicious monster boyfriend is not only acceptable; it\u2019s practically mandatory.\u00a0 Young, beautiful, and tantalizingly dangerous, these […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2976,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dvd","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2976"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}