Critics have been obsessing over the new film Warm Bodies after its release on February 1, but it wasn’t the film’s wittiness that had me entertained. Although the film had multiple parts during which a chuckle was rightfully evoked, I found the parallels to Romeo and Juliet to be far more interesting, even though the film was mediocre at best.
Throughout the movie, the audience is placed in the mind of a zombie whose name isn’t ever revealed as more than “R” (Nicholas Hoult), as he has lost all memory of his past and can’t remember his name other than the fact it begins with an “R.” The audience immediately emotionally attaches to “R” by means of his dry humor and annoyance with the zombie race.
His love interest, Julie (Teresa Palmer), appears just minutes into the film when “R” eats her boyfriend, Perry (Dave Franco), and then kidnaps her, taking her back to his home with the other zombies. From here, a relationship is built, and it keeps growing until Julie learns how Perry was killed and leaves “R” in the middle of the night while he sleeps, something that was impossible for “R” before he met Julie.
Driven by his emotions, he chases after Julie, despite the familial controversy bound to occur. This is due to Julie’s father leading the army that fights daily to kill the “corpses,” as they call the zombies throughout the film.
Let’s go back to the beginning. So we have two characters, one male and one female, driven together by unlikely circumstances whom ultimately end up falling in love. Oh, and I failed to mention that Julie is actually short for Juliet, and “R” could very well be Romeo, although there is no direct indication in the movie. On top of this, we have a society that wouldn’t approve of the relationship and a father who won’t hesitate to stop it. There’s a definite battle between the zombie and human race, much like the family feud between the Montagues and the Capulets.
I found the parallels throughout the film to be subtly placed, and the creative take on the traditional story was refreshing. Yet, I found myself bored several times throughout the movie, and it wasn’t until the end that I was actually finally engulfed by the action and romance. Overall, I think Warm Bodies deserves three stars, not for the action of the movie, but for the creativeness presented in the plot.