Theatrical Review: Warm Bodies

Location: Pocono Movieplex
ShowTime: 12:15pm
Duration: 98 minutes (+4 trailers)
Party: 2

As much as I love our local theater, both for the convenience and the rock-bottom ticket prices ($4.75 for the early bird), every now and then, it does come with its glitches.
It's almost impossible to go a year without being at one movie where the projection's alignment with the screen gets thrown off and it can take any between 10-20 minutes for it to be fixed.
Went in once where they forgot to give us 3D glasses.

But we never encountered a sound glitch before. 
Everything was fine until the actual movie (post trailers) started rolling. At first we thought it was a temporary thing that would clear up when the storyline progressed. 
Apparently not... 20 minutes in, my mom alerted the staff of the issue. Thankfully, it was an easy fix instead of the issue being the theater got a film can with horrendous audio quality.

It does go without saying that once that was cleared up, it was all smooth sailing... but from what I could decipher even with the sound of the projector roaring over the audio, I was already hooked and liking what I was seeing.

Had four previews, two of which were predictable.

That "Beautiful Creatures" trailer has been circulating like mad on TV and it's gotten to the point where I really don't care anymore. Maybe I'm just put off that the story is set in the south, not too keen on southern accents, or I plain just can't relate as well.
"Oblivion"... once again... I swear, the past couple times we'd gone to the movies, they keep showing this trailer. Sure, it looks cool and all that, but sooner or later, it seems like something they're pushing so much that when it finally gets here, it'll be a disappointment... no plans to see this one.

Then two brand new ones...

I recognized "City of Bones" immediately as another YA novel film adaptation... but I jumped the gun thinking it was Percy Jackson and "Sea of Monsters"... that doesn't come out until August, so of course it's too soon for a trailer... 
The effects for this movie look really cool and everything, but it's another series... one that's been out for a while and I'd been done that exhausting road one time too many so I'm most likely not going to sign on.

"Temptation" is another Tyler Perry movie, but the way they presented it looked pretty cool. The premise, supposedly, is about this girl who's been in a happy relationship with her boyfriend or husband for a while, and she meets a new guy who has her questioning how happy she is with this boyfriend/husband. The new guy seems so perfect, but later in the trailer, there seems to be a possibility that he might not be as perfect as he seems. Not my cup, Tyler Perry, in any regard, but at some point, I might be interested in seeing it... a couple years down the road.

...
I came across this movie in a trailer for another film. I'm guessing for the last Twilight film. First of all, I could anticipate all of the guys seeing this and thinking "WTF" and "why are they doing a love story with zombies"... I'm sure all the horror movie monster purists out there will reject it. But as a Twi-hard, I was drawn to the idea right away, interested in how they were going to do this exactly.

Most of the time, when I pick movies to see, I stick through series and sequels... the sequels are going to be piling up for the next year or so, between the Marvel universe and Hunger Games series... I go by my favorite actors (as of late, it's kinda been a hit and miss... like I said, I was spoiled in 2010)... I go by what looks its most likely to get a lot of Oscar buzz... or, the least likely case, I first hear of it in a movie trailer.

That happened with a couple of movies over the past couple years, all of which turned out great.

It was either this or Hansel & Gretel and I went with this because it's more my speed.

I have seen "About a Boy" at couple of times as well as "X-Men: First Class" but after this, I won't likely forget Nicholas Hoult any time soon. He made such a cute zombie. 
Plus, his narrations were hilarious and supplied some of the wittiest dialogue. And the dude's got great taste in music. We have a couple scenes of him hanging out in an old airplane, playing old vinyl records. He had me hooked for life (i.e. the remaining hour, 20 minutes) from the moment he put on "Missing You" by John Waite. One of many great songs that got airtime.

The concept was pretty interesting, how there's a possible cure out there for the zombies... which, ultimately, is that "love is contagious"...
It's love at first sight when he encounters Julie, played by Teresa Palmer. The only other time I'd seen her was in "I am number four" where she plays the butt-kicking #6 and she was a great co-star.
I was seeing the similarities between them and Bella & Edward... and I can hear everyone agreeing with me that Teresa Palmer has more acting chops than Kristen Stewart.

It's a slow & steady romance that starts to blossom, but it takes a little longer for Julie to feel the same way about him. (Being a zombie kinda puts a wall there to begin with). The characters are well thought out (however few of them there might be). And there was always an underlying tension there because you didn't know how things were going to break.

Supposedly the zombies came about because of an epidemic, an infection, plague, whatever you want to call it... they wander around, eating people. If they don't eat the brains (the best part), the people turn into zombies themselves. If they do eat the brains, the people just die... and the side-effect is that the zombie sees the memories of the person whose brains they eat.
Our starring zombie, R, (who never adopts a full name) kills who he finds to be Julie's boyfriend and eats his brains to find out more about her. Aside from listening to vinyl, eating brains helps him feel more alive.
The flip side is that when zombies give up living entirely, they become skeletal creatures known as "bonys"... who I assume can only be killed by having their skulls broken into.

Comparisons have been made in the reviews of the classical love story of "Romeo & Juliet." There is a balcony scene and there's somewhat of a language barrier. On the plus side, neither of the star-crossed lovers die.

By the end of it, the epilogue and such, I saw that the movie could almost double as a metaphor in addition to the love story... and it's not like in "New Moon" where Bella's friend Jessica was moaning about how zombies are a metaphor for consumerism and leprosy.
I'll leave that for anyone who feels like seeing the movie to figure it out for themselves. I'm thinking it could mean a little something different to each one of us. 

Any and all issues aside, I loved the movie. It was a cool alternate perspective of the zombie flick, although for the typical zombie model, I'd still side with "Zombieland". Good looking guy with great taste in music, witty dialogue, twists, turns, action, all that... I believe I found another kindred spirit.

Rating: A+