A good friend took me to see Warm Bodies tonight for my birthday. I had been wanting to see it since I saw the preview, but had trouble finding anyone who shared my intrigue enough to spend 8 bucks to watch something that sounded like it could potentially be more like the kind of movie you wait until it can be streamed on Netflix to watch. The basic plot is loosely based on Romeo and Juliet, only with a zombie Romeo. After killing Julie's boyfriend, proceeding to rescue and fall in love with her (followed eventually by her falling for him), they take on the masses with love breaching the live/undead gap.
Despite how stupid the premise sounds, this movie was actually (as I hoped) Awesome. Yes, that's an Awesome with a capital A. And here's why:
1. It demonstrated correct principles of how social in-grouping out-grouping behavior works. At the end R makes a comment about killing all the "bonies" (supra-zombies) at the end being a bonding experience between the living and the infected "corpses". According to current social psychological research, a superordinate goal is one of the few things that can bring competing groups together because it creates functional interdependence. These goals introduced to the environment can't be achieved by one group alone, but if collectively are needed bring them together. Another example is how at the beginning when R knows that he doesn't want to be how he is ponders "Am I the only one?". The moment when he finds he is not alone, that others would like to find a way back to their old self too, it establishes credibility, and they use each-other to prevent themselves for settling for less. It starts a movement when others are with him. Even though they were zombies, this is very real-life.
2. I'm no film major or movie-making geek, but I can tell the difference when a movie is well-done and when one is poorly made. I thought the angles were artistic and provided refreshing perspective changes throughout the movie. The use of particular color and lighting was fitting. The acting was believable. I found myself experiencing the suspension of disbelief (where I forget I'm watching) more often than not. AND the soundtrack was amazing.
3. I loved the symbolic connection that spoke of love bringing the dead to life. Even though the film was physiologically inconsistent/confusing (how could they get heartbeats if everything but their brain had been eaten? and other such quesions), it was philosophically beautiful. It wasn't the point of the movie to explain how the apocalypical zombie virus started or even the exact function that their brains underwent to spark the cure. So if you're hung up on that, get over it. What was important to this story was connection. And connection, we find, is what give us life, what makes us alive. It was when the corpses interacted with the humans, were taught by them, touched by them, LOVED by them, it was this connection that proved to be a cure that spread like good infection and exhumed the world.
The film ends with R and Julie watching as the wall the humans built to keep the corpses out is blown to bits.
Love crumbles walls, yo!
1. It demonstrated correct principles of how social in-grouping out-grouping behavior works. At the end R makes a comment about killing all the "bonies" (supra-zombies) at the end being a bonding experience between the living and the infected "corpses". According to current social psychological research, a superordinate goal is one of the few things that can bring competing groups together because it creates functional interdependence. These goals introduced to the environment can't be achieved by one group alone, but if collectively are needed bring them together. Another example is how at the beginning when R knows that he doesn't want to be how he is ponders "Am I the only one?". The moment when he finds he is not alone, that others would like to find a way back to their old self too, it establishes credibility, and they use each-other to prevent themselves for settling for less. It starts a movement when others are with him. Even though they were zombies, this is very real-life.
2. I'm no film major or movie-making geek, but I can tell the difference when a movie is well-done and when one is poorly made. I thought the angles were artistic and provided refreshing perspective changes throughout the movie. The use of particular color and lighting was fitting. The acting was believable. I found myself experiencing the suspension of disbelief (where I forget I'm watching) more often than not. AND the soundtrack was amazing.
3. I loved the symbolic connection that spoke of love bringing the dead to life. Even though the film was physiologically inconsistent/confusing (how could they get heartbeats if everything but their brain had been eaten? and other such quesions), it was philosophically beautiful. It wasn't the point of the movie to explain how the apocalypical zombie virus started or even the exact function that their brains underwent to spark the cure. So if you're hung up on that, get over it. What was important to this story was connection. And connection, we find, is what give us life, what makes us alive. It was when the corpses interacted with the humans, were taught by them, touched by them, LOVED by them, it was this connection that proved to be a cure that spread like good infection and exhumed the world.
The film ends with R and Julie watching as the wall the humans built to keep the corpses out is blown to bits.
Love crumbles walls, yo!
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