Warm Bodies is a
loose retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo
& Juliet but with a twist. Romeo or R (Nicholas Hoult) is a zombie,
living in a post apocalyptic world. He spends his days shuffling around a long
abandoned airport, looking for food and grunting. One day while out searching
for brains he comes across a group of young survivors and despite his
condition, falls in love with one of them, a girl called Julie (Teresa Palmer).
Going against his nature R saves Julie and takes her to a safe place. Something
about his love for Julie triggers a reaction inside R’s heart and he slowly
becomes more human but with armed militia out to kill zombies, will anyone
believe him?
Warm Bodies begins
with a fantastic idea. The film is mostly told from a zombie’s perspective
which I found really interesting. He has an internal monologue which is deep,
thoughtful and funny but outwardly is only able to produce a few groans.
Unfortunately the interest soon wears off in favour of the romantic elements.
While this is fine the film plays fast and loose with the zombie concept and
purists will struggle to engage with a fast moving, talking, sentient zombie.
