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Warm bodies

2/1/2014

1 Comment

 

2.93
B

"I think the movie realizes how stupid its premise is, and is able to laugh at itself"
"Based on the movie's genre and concept it is virtually impossible to come out with a "great" movie."
"One thing I loved is how easily Dave Franco is forgotten about"
An “A” of any kind is out because I’ll never own it. B+ movies for me are really intriguing and I want to see them again. I wavered between B- and B for Warm Bodies, but settled on a B- because it was a pretty good movie, but was missing enough comedy or intrigue to get a B.


I went into Warm Bodies thinking it was going to be a spoof of some sorts. I’m still not sure if it was. The big selling points for me were the main character’s dialogue, the soundtrack, and some of the silly humor. The music was enjoyable and definitely filled in for the lack of dialogue well. The main character’s description of events and dry take on being a zombie was pretty funny - I chuckled a couple times. I can’t help but laugh at the easy stuff like playing catch with a zombie and the ball simply drills him or the two zombies grunting at each other at the bar.


I could have watched 90 minutes of over the top zombie comedy and come away more pleased. I think the film lost it’s way about 20 minutes in.


My biggest gripes with Warm Bodies are the following:
1) John Malcovich’s character is boring. Why did he even take that role?
2) I’m not sure if the chase scenes were trying to be intense or funny, but they seemed like filler to me.
3) The scene 2/3 of the way through where she stops in the burbs after being chased by zombies was terrible. Another one of those things were it’s like a zombie spoof, but not really because nothing bad happened. She was making relatively rational decisions (besides dating a zombie) until then.

Maybe I missed something or forgot some scene I really liked, but after this review I’m sticking with a B-.
1 Comment
Jon link
11/19/2014 02:54:15 pm

I'm going with a B for Warm Bodies. It got several strong laughs from me, a couple moments drew me in emotionally, and though I have a few complaints, they don't break the movie. I think Bryan's right to call it more of a comedy than a thriller or a romance, though it attempts to be all three. It could've been much worse, seeing as it piggybacks on the trend of some kind of teenage supernatural creature's relationship with a human teenager. I think the movie realizes how stupid its premise is, and is able to laugh at itself, which is where most of its charm comes from.

Warm Bodies's greatest asset is the lead actor, Nicholas Hoult. He was the kid in About a Boy, he's Beast in the new X-Men movies, and he was amazing in a British teen TV show, Skins. If he isn't great here, the whole movie falls apart. I totally bought him as a zombie. He shuffles consistently well, he has great control of his face, and he's great at conveying how hard it is for him to remember words. His internal monologue is funny, and his timing is solid. Like Bryan, most of the rehashed comedy bits worked for me. A joke I always love is when someone psychs themselves up into doing something, does it poorly, and then thinks to themselves, "Nailed it." I've seen that joke a lot, and the version of it they do here works just as well.

I'm iffy on the zombie mythology, and I'd like to hear if it bothered you guys at all. Essentially, a zombie can think themselves back to being human. I'm relatively ok with it, but I could understand if that's a bridge too far. Like most zombie movies, there's a metaphor there about drifting through life without making a connection, and I think that's a fine theme, but the equivalent is a movie about a cancer patient wishing away their tumors. Again, it didn't really bother me, but I can imagine it bothering someone else.

I'm with Bryan on the soundtrack/score being strong, and John Malcovich being mostly wasted. A more serious movie would've had him be the ultimate bad guy, like in 28 Days Later, but this much lighter movie didn't know what to do with him. One think I loved is how easily Dave Franco is forgotten about. There's not really a big blow-up once R reveals to Julie (I think that was her name) that he's been snacking on her boyfriend's brain. People die all the time in this world, and it'd be too much for the living if they dwelt on it too much.

Bryan pinpoints Warm Bodies losing its way about 20 minutes in, which is about when the humans show up. If the zombie portion is done well, did you all think the human portion was its equal?

By the Hawks rule (see ratings description in spreadsheet), no bad scenes and two good to great scenes (ending montage, zombies' hearts beating when looking at hand-holding poster), so Warm Bodies gets a B. What'd you think, Drew?

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