At the beginning of the year when I was compiling my list of the top films of 2013 — really all of the 2013 films I’ve seen* I put Warm Bodies at the bottom of the list. As time has gone by, I didn’t quite remember why I ranked Warm Bodies so lowly and so I just re-watched the film to see if it actually merited being ranked below Planes and The Lone Ranger.
Maybe.I don’t like the humans in Warm Bodies. I don’t like the Julie character. I don’t like her ex-boyfriend Perry, I don’t like her father Colonel Grigio and I don’t like her friend whose name i don’t remember because it’s very important. Sure I like R. I kinda like M. But that’s not nearly enough.
I don’t like how it’s a partial Romeo and Juliet rip off. I understand that the story probably existed before Shakespeare’s version and that various adaptations have followed since but if you’re going so far to try and name your lead lovers R(omeo) and Julie(t) you might as well go whole-hog and kill them at the end. That’s a big part of Romeo and Juliet. Even if you remove the Prince character in whole or part (Sorry, Paul Rudd is supposed to die), removing Mercutio and Tybalt … the starcrossed lovers need to die. Or else it’s just two random kids from differing groups who fall in love.
My opinion of the movie was also probably poisoned by his controversy the author started when he may have inelegantly objected to the suggestion that his writing was Young Adult.
I’d give the movie 3/5 stars. And I’m keeping the ranking where it stands, currently 28 out of 30. The only movies below it in the ranking? City of Bones and The Host.
Let 2013 be the year they stopped making crap adaptations of books.
* again, Jurassic Park 3-D is on my 2013 movie list but I was really impressed with the presentation. I did feel like it was new.