At its core, Warm Bodies is a romantic comedy about zombies. Yes, you read that correctly. Nearly three months after wrapping up the Twilight Saga (just when I was beginning to get used to the idea of hunky werewolves and vampires), the movie industry passes the teen-girl magnet mantle along to another supernatural creature.

The film starts off with a zombie apocalypse; buildings are demolished and streets are deserted.

But there are still human survivors, hiding. Most zombies eat humans to stay alive, but one particular zombie, R (Nicholas Hoult), likes to eat human brains to get the memories of their previous owners.
While searching for “food,” R and a group of zombies run into Julie (Teresa Palmer). It’s love at first sight for R, so instead of leaving Julie as easy prey for the ruthless zombies, he leads her back to his hideout, a settled in, nonfunctional plane. It doesn’t take too long for Julie to discover R is different from the other zombies. Sure, he has the hunched walk, signature “zombie” groan and limited facial expressions. But after R convinces Julie to stay with him for a few days, she finds that he has human qualities. He’s caring, funny and has great taste in music.

The relationship between the two blossoms quickly, exposing the nurturing side of R. The thought of a zombie having feelings is revolutionary, and the phenomenon soon spreads to the other zombies. R’s friend, M, begins to dream, something only humans can do.

The change gives hope to the people transformed into zombies — perhaps if the feeling could strengthen then there’s a chance the zombies can change back into humans. But disaster strikes when the bonies, relentless fleshless zombies that would even kill their own kind, go after Julie and R. From there, Julie and R use their romance to inspire other zombies to join together to take down the bonies.

There are few that could possibly make playing a zombie as endearing and charming as Hoult (Clash of the Titans). His narration during certain scenes offers an interesting perspective and a dose of down-to-earth humor. He has mastered the uncomfortable, naive zombie face and walk to the point one would think he’s done this before. Bravo. Palmer, on the other hand, is less engaging. She says her lines but there’s little enthusiasm behind them. She does, though, add a nice contrast to R. Her character is more free-spirited while R is more … dead. And with that, at least I can say she’s better than Kristen Stewart.

Warm Bodies has its moments of humor and allure but I’m afraid it’s the same boy-sees-girl-rescues-her-happily-ever-after plot we’ve seen a million times before — only with zombies. And in this case, the brain-eating corpses have more life than the story does.
 

Ellen Pham is a junior at Chamberlain High.