Unquestionably The Best Zombie-Human Rom-Com of the Year

[redbrunja]

I saw Warm Bodies with qualapec yesterday and loved it. I can already tell you that it’s going to end up in one of my top five movies of 2013.

I would love other people to watch this movie so here is the trailer (watch halfway through and then click out of the window - the trailer editor tried to show the whole movie in three minutes, like they always do):

If you watched that and thought, ‘Huh, that could be good,’ know that yes, it is good.

Here are some non-spoilery things to get you to watch the movie:

-It's funny. R’s inner monologue is priceless.

-the music choices are brilliant. They choose some great songs and used them perfectly.

-the heroine, Julie, is a total fucking badass

-Julie has an interesting backstory with her ex-boyfriend (shocking, right? someone who is clearly the romantic interest is written to have a LIFE and a PAST of her own)

-Julie is also friends with ANOTHER badass zombie killing girl. There is no jealousy and no bitchiness in their relationship and the friend is allowed to be funny. (Girls being funny! It happens!)

Now, once you’ve seen this movie, here are some spoilery things that I want to talk about

OH MY GOD R’S SLOW-MO VISION OF JULIE KILLING ZOMBIES. BEST THING EVER OR BEST THING EVER?

I really liked the zombie lore that zombies eat brains because that means they get their victim’s memories. I fucking loved how gross that was and how it complicated and moved the romance forward.

Julie’s BFF was DELIGHTFUL. I’m sorry R’s turned out to be such a douche.

Okay, the whole power of love thing was kind of ridiculous, but whatever. I feel like if you’re going to bitch about that, you shouldn’t be watching a zombie rom-com in the first place.

So, qualapec and I are both LBD fans, so when R talked about turn-tables having a better sound, I turned to her and went, ‘Darcy!bot programing malfunctioning’ and did the robot arms. At the time, it was hysterical.

Also, as qualapec and were gushing after the movie, she mentioned that this was a better beauty and the beast retelling than Rumbelle. qualapec speaks the truth!

Also, just to be honest, I did not clue to the R and Julie = Romeo and Juliet UNTIL THE BALCONY scene. No points for acuity to Red.

R progressively gets hotter thought the film; there should be poll about when it stops being creepy to want to make out with him. Probably about twenty minutes after I wanted to make out with him.

Comments

[profshallowness.livejournal.com]

I've seen this and was pretty entertained by it. Zombie movies are not my thing, but the trailer made me think I'd enjoy it, and the snarky tone and a lot of what you mention won me over. How R first saw Julie was pretty spectacular and yes, her friendship with Nora was fab. You're not alone in not having made the Romeo and Juliet connection until the balcony scene.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

You're not alone in not having made the Romeo and Juliet connection until the balcony scene.

Glad I wasn't alone about that!

[qualapec.livejournal.com]

It was spectacular! It was such a fresh, interesting take on the zombie genre and the tropes associated with it. I also really loved the idea of zombies as monsters because they're treated like monsters (which is so damn meta on itself), and that the only irredeemable undead were the ones that saw themselves as monsters.

JULIE. Not only is it a very hipstery movie that avoids making her the Manic Pixie Dreamgirl. I love that the "love at first sight" shot is of her being like, completely BAMF And I love love love that he never, ever goes "zombie" on her in a threatening way after their first encounter. He just spent the rest of the movie worshiping her and I AM TOTALLY OKAY WITH THAT.

I also really like how you could see that her relationship with her dead BF was one that was legit supportive and caring, even if he seemed like kind of a jerk when he shows up. I like how we saw the change in their relationship through R's visions and how we got to learn about Julie through them. Plus, it ties in a really cool way to the idea of girls wanting a guy who understands them.

There is just something so cruel about zombies taking the memories of their victims...and knowing that the final memory is always going to be of the person being eaten by the zombie. Like, that just seemed so perfectly calculated to drive them towards becoming skeletons.

So, qualapec and I are both LBD fans, so when R talked about turn-tables having a better sound, I turned to her and went, ‘Darcy!bot programing malfunctioning’ and did the robot arms. At the time, it was hysterical.

YES! I FUCKING DIED! We were just talking about hipster!Darcy, too. NGL my first thought was "OMG I want that AU!" but I couldn't figure out how to express it right then.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

It was such a fresh, interesting take on the zombie genre and the tropes associated with it.

*nods*

I also think that it was lightly poking - or at least a refreshing contrast to - a lot of other supernatural romances.

I love that the "love at first sight" shot is of her being like, completely BAMF

Same. That was arguably my favorite part of the movie.

And I love love love that he never, ever goes "zombie" on her in a threatening way after their first encounter. He just spent the rest of the movie worshiping her and I AM TOTALLY OKAY WITH THAT.

ME TOO.

I also really like how you could see that her relationship with her dead BF was one that was legit supportive and caring, even if he seemed like kind of a jerk when he shows up. I like how we saw the change in their relationship through R's visions and how we got to learn about Julie through them.

Yep. I love that Julie had a very interesting, dynamic, and believable relationship with her ex(?) but was also in a believable place to start a new romance.

YES! I FUCKING DIED! We were just talking about hipster!Darcy, too. NGL my first thought was "OMG I want that AU!" but I couldn't figure out how to express it right then.

Hee! That would be amazing.

[phemyscira.livejournal.com]

I am so conflicted about this movie. On the one hand, Julie was CLEARLY described as a black woman in the book and they could have hired the more experienced Ethiopian woman from Misfits to play the part, so I'm super pissed that Hollywood has yet again replaced a woman of colour with a white woman.

On the other hand, WELL-WRITTEN FEMALE HEROINES AND WELL-WRITTEN FEMALE FRIENDSHIPS. THAT'S SOMETHING ELSE THAT DOESN'T GET DONE ENOUGH IN MOVIES. D:

I hate Hollywood and how it makes me feel conflicted.

[plural-entity.livejournal.com]

I am so conflicted about this movie. On the one hand, Julie was CLEARLY described as a black woman in the book and they could have hired the more experienced Ethiopian woman from Misfits to play the part, so I'm super pissed that Hollywood has yet again replaced a woman of colour with a white woman.

OH MAN. REALLY?

I don't even recall that. I mean, I devoured the book in about two days. I totally never caught the black woman thing. Huh. I'm really going to have to reread the book now and see if I can find that passage. Because I absolutely blew past that.

[phemyscira.livejournal.com]

Really. It's been discussed at length in tumblr but I heard about it from one of my favourite blogs. If you like, you can read about it here in this link:

http://jhenne-bean.tumblr.com/tagged/warm-bodies

To sum up, there were several examples of the heroine being described as a brown woman with curly hair, not to mention her dad is Ethiopian but they still decided to go with a white actress instead.

[plural-entity.livejournal.com]

OH. You meant Nora. You said Julie in your post and it totally threw me for a loop. Julie's the one falling in love with R, and Nora is the half-Ethiopian best friend. xD I was like, NO, Julie was always white? LOL.

[phemyscira.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, I see! Sorry about that, my mistake. I had never heard about the novel till the racebending blogs mentioned it so I assumed that the main heroine was being whitewashed. From the information I read it seemed like the heroine was Ethiopian.

[mistaria.livejournal.com]

Aw man that makes me really mad to hear. I haven't read the book yet because I generally hate the movie of anything I read the book of first but I try not to give money to movies that whitewash. x_x

[phemyscira.livejournal.com]

but I try not to give money to movies that whitewash. x_x

Yes. Warm Bodies isn't the first and won't be the last movie to white wash characters but I'd like to discourage the practice through my spending power. Even though Red makes a good case for the movie and I really, really enjoy positive female interactions and awesome heroines, in the back of my head I'm going to be sitting there thinking: "They should have cast a brown girl, they should have cast a brown girl." Hollywood needs to realise that I can find good films or televisions shows that have strong female characters AND is inclusive to racial/ethnic minorities because they're the ones I'm going to really enjoy and they're the ones I'm going to spend my money on.

[phemyscira.livejournal.com]

Hey, just thought you should know that Nina was the character that was white washed, not Julie. Nina is the main heroine's best friend in the book. I thought you should know because I feel bad for giving out incorrect information. XD Sorry about that.

[mistaria.livejournal.com]

Oooh okay. Yeah that still sucks but not quite as bad as if it were the main character.

[phemyscira.livejournal.com]

Yeah, whitewashing secondary characters is still pretty bad because you're taking representation from an audience that would probably really identify with her but it would be even worse if she were the main character because it has so much more unfortunate implications.

[imsodirtyhoney.livejournal.com]

i lost my chance to watch this in the theaters ):
i'm trying to download it but i can't find a link that works

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

If you find a good download, please let me know.

[plural-entity.livejournal.com]

When I first saw this actor in X-men: First Class, I totally didn't think he was hot. Then I saw him in this and instantly fell in love with his hotness.

Which is pretty much the only thing that makes me want to possibly see Jack the Giant Slayer.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, I realized that the guy in Jack The Giant Slayer and that guy from Skins were the same and I suspected that R had been Hank in X-men... TOTALLY MISSED that it was the same actor the whole time.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

Omg! I randomly decided to IMDB this movie since the mention of not one but TWO badass girls who have a genuine friendship (how rare is this in entertainment, that's just tragic) made me all squeeful and I had to learn more and so I discovered that Nora is played by Analeigh Tipton!

Okay, so I'm sure that means nothing to anyone not a die-hard America's Next Top Model fan, but I adored her so much on her cycle and I love that she's worked her way up to this kind of role. Female friendships done justice + ANTM fave = ♥

shocking, right? someone who is clearly the romantic interest is written to have a LIFE and a PAST of her own

I was put-off by the whole ~power of love~ thing, ngl, but reading this reassures me because the main thing I hate about the way romances are written in general is the way the girl is treated as a disposable interchangeable nebulous entity without much depth who exists solely to be the object of affection and isn't allowed to have any agency or goals or motivations that don't relate to the romance. So in addition to other things that are already in this movie's favor, well, now I gotta see this. Thanks for your post!

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

(how rare is this in entertainment, that's just tragic)

So tragic.

Okay, so I'm sure that means nothing to anyone not a die-hard America's Next Top Model fan, but I adored her so much on her cycle and I love that she's worked her way up to this kind of role. Female friendships done justice + ANTM fave = ♥

Good for her!

I was put-off by the whole ~power of love~ thing, ngl, but reading this reassures me because the main thing I hate about the way romances are written in general is the way the girl is treated as a disposable interchangeable nebulous entity without much depth who exists solely to be the object of affection and isn't allowed to have any agency or goals or motivations that don't relate to the romance.

Nope, this movie is pretty much the complete opposite of that. And the ~power of love~ thing is ridiculous but not in a sexist way?

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

One of my other friends was just telling me about this movie, too. Wow, that really looks hilarious. If I was sure my migraines could handle a movie theater these days, I would totally go see that.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Sorry about the migraines. Maybe when it comes out of DVD?

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

Thanks. And yeah, there is always DVD! :)

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

If you hadn't said "Of the year" then I'd have asked how it compared to Fido.

. . . actually, I'm still wondering how it compares to Fido.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Haven't seen Fido, so...

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

Fido (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0457572/) was a 2007 zom-com whose premise was that the zombie wars had ended a few years back in full victory and now the 50s suburbia idyll featured zombie servants (in shock collars to ensure they didn't bite anyone) and elementary schools that have marksmanship classes. A boy whose family just got a zombie would honestly rather have a dog, so he decides to treat the zombie like a dog. It becomes a Boy and his Zombie story.

. . . then the zombie hooks up with his mom.