Warm Bodies is a movie based on the book of the same name that was released November of 2011. Having not read the book before, I was wondering whether or not if I should give it a try, as I’ve found that most books are better than their movie portrayals. But because it consisted of two of my favorite genres- romance and science fiction- I gathered a small group of friends and went and saw it on opening day.

The movie started off with narration from R (Nicholas Hoult), who basically complained about being dead and not being able to communicate with fellow zombies. He then talked about wondering who people were before becoming zombies and wished that things were different. And as they say, be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.

One day, R and some other zombies end up finding a group of youth that was sent out to find supplies in the rundown world. There, R eats the brain of Perry Kelvin (Dave Franco).  R views some of his memories, from when we was a young child to more recent events involving his girlfriend Julie Grigio (Teresa Palmer).  Having seen these memories, R saves Julie by smearing his blood on her face to mask her human scent.

And this is where the movie goes flat.

For what felt like most of the movie, the two are seen getting closer to each other and basically doing nothing. Sure, there were a few good laughs in there, but I just wanted to get to what I saw in the trailers.

Speaking of which, if you have ever watched the trailers before, you have basically seen ¾ of the movie already. The trailers clearly explain how the two main characters meet, what’s going on, etc. The only thing they leave out is the ending and a few scenes here and there, which annoyed me. Throughout the whole movie I was waiting for something different to happen, as trailers are often edited to make you think something different than what actually happens. But it never did, which left me feeling disappointed.

Anyway, Julie eventually gets home, and that’s when R realizes that Julie has changed him…literally! His heart has begun slowly beating again and begins feeling human feelings such as being cold. This is slowly spreading to the rest of the zombies, causing them all to change like him. He then goes to warn Julie of the revolution that they have started and the danger that they are both in. And from there…well you can watch the movie or read the book to find that out.

My reaction towards the movie was completely mixed. I loved the realistic-looking settings, the well-done zombie make-up, the idea of a zombie/human romance (that may be because I’m a teenage girl who loves zombies) and the Romeo and Juliet references (R is Romeo, Julie is Juliet, their forbidden love, etc.), but I did have several gripes with it (besides the whole trailer issue).

For example, Teresa Palmer reminded me WAY too much of Kristen Stewart, from how she acted and looked in certain scenes. I swear she could’ve been Kristen Stewart’s blue-eyed blonde twin, which I guess shouldn’t be surprising since the same company that produced Twilight (Summit Entertainment) produced this movie as well.  But I will happily report though that she is a much better actress for the most part.

Not only was there that issue, but also sometimes the movie was completely illogical. In one scene of the movie, R and Julie were being chased during what seemed like the nighttime and somehow they jumped from a multiple story building, fell into a pool, and survived. If that wasn’t enough, they had enough time to make-out and it was suddenly daytime. I mean, seriously? I understand a zombie movie can’t be completely realistic, but that was kind of absurd.

Even with those flaws (and ones that I didn’t mention), I WOULD still recommend this movie, but as a Friday night rental, rather than seeing it in the theaters. The comedy, the romance, and the scenes that kept you on the edge of your seat managed to make up for most of the problems I had with this movie. But, I was still expecting more of a zombie thriller from this movie, and it didn’t really deliver through; it was more of a ‘chick flick’ than anything else, and a mediocre one at best. Nonetheless, if you’re on Netflix sometime in the future and you see Warm Bodies as a movie choice, it’s not the worst option out there.