Warm Bodies ☆☆☆☆

As far as book to film adaptations go Warm Bodies is up there with the best. I actually reviewed the book here last year when I first saw the trailer for Warm Bodies, having had no interest in the book previously despite knowing that Simon Pegg was a fan.

The film version has many positives, the zombies, the scenery, the tinting of the colours to be this washed out grey to reflect the militirised state of the humans and the one dimensional lives of the zombies. There are also Boneys who are so far gone into their zombie state that they are walking/running skeletons. Scary things.

So for those who haven't read the book or failed to click on my helpfully supplied link to my review above, this is a love story between a zombie called R and a girl called Julie (getting the Shakespeare reference?) who he rescues from being eaten, handily after eating her boyfriends brains. Their connection sparks a revolution in the zombies and it is up to the pair to change the world, fighting boneys and parents along the way.

There are changes to the story to make the film an easy to watch hour and a half, it is a little sappy to be any longer and the things they cut - a 'marriage' between R and another zombie and their 'children', communication between R and Perry (the boyfriend) through the recently deceased's memories - made the film more workable. They did change the ending which was disappointing as it would have been amazing for John Malkovich to really sink his teeth into the character of General Grigio, Julie's father, and...well I'm not going to spoil the book now am I?

So story wise I approved (mostly) of the changes and it flowed really well. As for the characters, much like the book R is the most captivating of them all and the use of his narrative was excellent, there are moments where I was frustrated by the hand-on-heart great to be alive and American moments and then Nicholas Hoult's zombie voice would cut through the syrup and make you laugh as he struggled to communicate but sounded so happy to get the smallest sentence out.

Hoult (About A Boy, X-Men) really deserves a full star of his own - he is what made the film brilliant to me. In a recent interview with Graham Norton he said that he had this thought that zombies wouldn't blink, and so Jonathan Levine pounced upon the idea and so Hoult did not blink. Not once. Okay maybe he did but it was for good reason. And it was really effective so kudos to you Nick Hoult.
Hoult transformed and became R, confused about himself but unable to express it beyond grunts and shrugging. His relationship with his best friend, played fantastically by Rob Corddry (What Happens in Vegas, Hot Tub Time Machine), is communicated through their eyes mostly, but then through the sentences they manage to cobble together. It was another of the great aspects of the book that translated really well onto screen.

Teresa Palmer (I Am Number Four) lived up to the Julie of the book, a bit flat and annoying, but at least she could handle a weapon so was a bit more kick ass than the Bella Swans of the supernatural world.
John Malkovich should have had so much more to play with than what he had, and he half suited the role because of the changes - had they not changed so much he would have been f-ing awesome.

Levine did a great job as director, having previously been responsible for All The Boys Love Mandy Lane and 50/50 he has shown he can handle horror and romance with equal strength. The plotline was solid, it kept to a story that was easily followed by the viewer and retained the humour from the book. The casting of Hoult was beyond brilliant and only he, in my humble opinion, could convey the struggle of R to the screen with such spirit, you know, for a walking corpse.

SIDENOTE: Forgot to put this in earlier, but the soundtrack is fantastic and those who love vinyl will appreciate its use and the sentiment attached through the film.