Warm Bodies (2013) - Jonathan Levine

et in a post-apocalyptic future, Warm Bodies follows R, a highly unusual zombie who desperately desires to be able to connect with people again.  While out searching for human flesh with a group of his fellow zombies he encounters Julie, a human out for supplies, who he ends up rescuing from a zombie attack.  It takes some getting used too but Julie begins to realize that R is not a typical flesh eating zombie, with the two forming a relationship in their struggle to survive.  Jonathan Levine's Warm Bodies is a rather  unique romantic comedy that does a pretty good job at satirizing the typical tropes of the zombie genre.  R's blank stares at Julie are quite hilarious and the film does a great job at taking this typical zombie character and using it as a great device to capture the shy, awkwardness which exists in young love when a crush develops.  While aspects of the film are well done, the film is wildly inconsistent in the world it sets from the outset.  For starters, R develops the ability to speak with Julie far too fast in the film.  We see this visual "heartbeat" trigger which establishes R's change long after he initially begins to talk to Julie which just didn't make sense.  Another example would be the flashback sequence where we see how Julie's deceased ex-boyfriend, Perry, lost his father.  In the sequence the zombies are shown in a light more similar to the 28 Days Later flesh-eaters, yet the first 15 minutes of the film set-up that the zombies in this film are of the lethargic variety.  Too some these issues are certainly trivial but I really don't like when films lack consistency in the world they create.   My other big issue with Warm Bodies was how Julie's father, General Grigio, was such a one-dimensional character.  He is a character which we are supposed to feel sorry for and understand his hatred for zombies yet the film never spends the necessary time to develop this aspect which leaves him coming off more like a caricature.  Jonathan Levine's Warm Bodies is certainly a unique and cute romantic comedy but not enough time was spent on setting up the world and the supporting characters for me to be much into the experience.
5.5/10

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