Warm Bodies

I love the book by Isaac Marion and I love the concept behind this apocalyptic, zombified Romeo and Juliet fairy tale. Nicholas Hoult definitely very competently carried off the lead. His sardonic, deadpanned wit and British charisma brought this Jonathan Levine adapted/scripted, voice-over heavy first act alive. That coupled with the many clever lines, physical comedy gold, his spot on facial expressions and self-depreciating reaction shots made the first act a hilarious joy to watch with many laughters and chuckles throughout. The second act slowed down a bit but at least the two leads had some sort of chemistry and it was nice to see this atypical love story develop, although at times Teresa Palmer appeared deader than Hoult. However, this is more likely due to how less fleshed out (hah!) her character is compared to zombie R. The third act unfortunately lost momentum and became somewhat "normal"...oh, the irony! It just felt like any other typical horror/action thriller. It kind of lost that charm that made the first two acts so unique and interesting. Also, Levine laid on too heavy-handedly the imageries and religious metaphors but the nod to the Shakespearean source was cute. One good, and smart, thing Levine had done was to pepper the first two act with songs from A-list musicians that brought out the non-verbalised emotions of Hoult. But, again, this disappeared in the third act which really aggravated the tonal shift of the whole story. Thankfully, Hoult is a wickedly reliable and engaging presence throughout all three acts to anchor the audience down.