Warm Bodies: Even Zombies can Love These Days

In a time when vampires and werewolves have turned into romantic icons it should come as no surprise that zombies can...feel love and also be loved back. 
At least that is the premise of Warm Bodies, a 2013 film based on the novel by Isaac Marion. Apparently, the zombie state caused by the virus  is basically a new stage in life one that can allow human beings to endure beyond the traumatic event we call Death, but because it is a relatively new condition little is known about what to do to those who are infected with the virus and the only way to deal with a zombie is then to put a bullet in his or her head. The very few living humans have built a fortress and live in a city inside. They are heavily armed and always on the look to eliminate all zombies.
One day, a girl called Julie (Teresa Palmer) accidentally meets and befriends a young zombie who calls himself R (Nicholas Hoult). This relationship triggers in R the transformation back to being human, a process that promptly begins in all the other zombies with the exception of the "Bonies" or "Skeletons", zombies that have been more deeply affected and cannot become human again. The Skeletons are essentially evil and for some reason , faster, stronger and even better organized than the "average" zombies. when they discover what is happening between R and Julie they decide to go after them.
R and Julie have decided to let the other living humansknow  that is it possible for a zombie to live again, but of course that will be only possible if the living want to listen, though it helps Julie's father is the living humans' maximum leader which also comes in handy since a final confrontation between the skeletons , the zombies and the humans looms in the horizon.    
Though it is predictable you just have to like this movie. Hoult's performance is quite physical since he is a zombie for most of the movie                                                                        , but one that is slowly becoming human again and he has to stick to that situation. Teresa Palmer is perfect for the role of Julie for Julie becomes a beacon of light in R's gloomy existence and that is precisely what she does. The photography is at times dark to reflect R's world but then it is light and yet there is some dark in that light as well. I just don´t know how they do it but I think the result is surreal and terrific at the same time.
It is a good thing they decided not to leave loose ends in the plot for a possible sequel but the audiences have welcomed this story openly and thus the writer is currently preparing the second installment.
Four stars out of five for this one.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

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