Warm Bodies has an interesting concept: seeing the world from the perspective of a zombie. While I think the narration at the start could have been used less often, as it sometimes felt like filler or the scene would have been better without any inner thoughts. The best example would be the first conversation between "R" and his best friend "M" at the airport – the rule in movies usually is show and don't tell. But during this scene, they're trying to show and to tell that they're currently showing something. This happens later on as well, and each time I got the feeling that the makers tried to appeal to everyone – including people with very short term memory. But I'll get to this later.

The movie felt slow straight from the beginning – like a real zombie should feel like. Sometimes extremely slow, as it seemed like some scenes were just there to make the running time longer, which always sucks. In hindsight, the movie would have been better if it were 20 or so minutes shorter, with a lot of the music laden montages or music laden – but still tedious – walking scenes removed. But perhaps that was because the movie followed the "life" of a zombie. A lot of the conversations between Julie and "R" felt boring, long and tedious as well, while the conversations between R and M felt like they had weight to it – and they were often funny, thanks to M.

But actual progress or development is where the movie doesn't delve into very much, at least with our main characters. At one moment Julie is afraid she might die at any moment, but a music laden montage later she behaves like this no big deal and all she has ever known – even making jokes about R, whom she calls "the shrugger." You know, because he shrugs a lot. I would have called him Sir Shrugalot, as he tries to keep Julie safe like a knight in rotten armor. But we never see why she behaves like this. We can only guess, because the time that passed is only mentioned once. And "a few days" is very open to interpretation on how it actually was.
It's the same with R. At the first night Julie is sleeping in his plane, he is lying down but doesn't sleep nor dream. He also tells the viewer via inner monolog that the dead do not sleep or dream. Later, when they left the plane to bring Julie back home, he lies down again. He again tells the viewer that the dead do not sleep or dream – and immediately falls asleep and dreams. It was set up thirty or so minutes earlier, but the movie still felt the need to remind the viewer, so the viewer with this very short term memory doesn't miss the change.
The most development we get is with M, R's best friend. He actually is the most developed character in the movie. R has no personality, Julie is a generic love interest and damsel in distress, but M is a real human being – as much as a zombie can be one. While R always says that he is conflicted, M actually shows that he is conflicted. M is loyal to his friend, R, who wants to keep someone alive instead of eating her. M tries to convince him that they need to eat Julie, because she is alive and they'll become boneys/skeletons (or "waste") if they don't. And he delivers it with just two words: "Living! Eat!" You can actually feel M's desperation through those words. But he still does not try to eat Julie, as his friend does want him to do that – M is a good friend.

The movie tries make us believe that zombies seeing a zombie and a human holding hands can make their hearts function again. I'd call that a little far fetched. But hey, so is the idea of zombies itself! So I think it is alright to let it slide or file this under the "zombie fairy tale" category, which makes the happy end fit in much better as R becomes a real boy.

And while I mentioned the movie starts really slow, it picks up in the last act. For some it might be too little and too late, but I could let it slide – but I still think this is barely an 6 (an ok movie). As I said earlier, the movie would have been better if some of the narration, unnecessary scenes and montages would have been removed and trimmed the movie in the progress. I also didn't mind seeing a zombie getting make up to the song "Pretty Woman" - it was so surreal, it almost was a laugh out loud moment. The music was played on one character's iPhone, in case you're reading this review by removing the spoiler warning yourself. iPhones last a long time, says product placement.

I think some people, especially zombie-purists, will not like the movie. It does not have a lot blood, gruesome death scenes or a high amount of gore. But the only thing I can say to that is, in the words of M: "Bitches, man."

When I saw first saw a trailer for this movie I was surprised to realize I had genuine interest in seeing a zombie film. Nearly 8 years later I have finally watched it and I have no regrets.

This is a uniquely done “love conquers all things” type story. I mean, it’s utter nonsense and completely unrealistic, but that’s part of what makes it so great!

Sure, it isn’t without some flaws, but nothing so major that it took away from the overall enjoyment; not for me personally. [spoiler]For example; R took the time to explain that as zombies they struggled to communicate by talking, but then R and M did a pretty damn good job of it not far past that point. Also, it was pointed out that they were slow, but they were shown to move at a pretty fair pace! R was certainly running with Julie without issue. Some of it can possibly be chalked up to the fact that he was rapidly becoming more human than zombie from the moment he began to fall for Julie, but I think it was perhaps done a little too quickly. Maybe M was affected more quickly as well because him and R were “best friends” and he cared that R was happy.[/spoiler] And maybe it sounds like I’m trying to make excuses for those faults, but really I’m just trying to imagine intention.

The gore wasn’t overly gorey; they didn’t unnecessarily make certain scenes over the top gross and they didn’t force those kinds of scenes in constantly, which is why I often avoid such movies.

I also felt like I sensed an underlying message; [spoiler]where as zombies they were not really living or thriving without love in their lives. Everything was dull and boring and empty. I think if you go long enough without meeting certain human needs then you aren’t going to be able to bounce back, and we all have varying degrees of those needs so it’s different for us all; and that’s what “giving up” and turning into a boney represented. Not a perfect representation, since they were all essentially scary, killer monsters and I don’t believe it’s true of the nature of what happens to everyone that goes on too long without love, but still. I find that it works in this instance.[/spoiler]

This film is quirky, it’s fun, and it has heart!

If you like zombie's gener you will love this movie ... or not!

It cheats in a cheap way through creating 2 level of zombies: the good ones and the bad ones. Also, it breaks tons of zombies stereotypes to be able to build the story, that's why you may end hating it if you are a "purist".

As this is not my case, I really enjoyed this movie. Fun script, good casting and great performances by Hoult and Palmer. Also, always a pleasure to watch a movie with John Malkovich.

This is a quite different zombie movie. I think it can best be described as a romantic zombie movie with a humorous touch and some action thrown in for good measure. It is not at all a bad movie. I do prefer the “shot everything that moves and when it doesn’t move anymore shot some more just to be sure” type of zombie movies but I still quite enjoyed this one. The words “romantic” and “zombie” is of course two words that you really would never expect to see in the same sentence. Surprisingly enough it does indeed work in this movie.

I think my main enjoyment of this movie was the voice-over with R’s thoughts though. At times it is incredibly funny. The actual story, that the zombies’ magically starts to heal themselves is of course pretty nonsensical but you do not really watch zombie movies for their elaborate plot anyway. I have seen worse and this was not really supposed to be a horror-zombie movie anyway so I can live with that.

This is the first zombie-movie that I have watched where you actually see the story from the zombies perspective. Another thing that, surprisingly enough, worked quite well. The voice-overs helped a lot to make that happen.

The special effects are fairly low key for being a zombie movie but I would say that they are just about right for this movie. The “bonies” are the most monster-like ones in the movie and their make-up is quite cool. Unfortunately their movements are quite stiff and look decidedly computer generated. That is a shame and pretty much the only complaint I have concerning the actual implementation of this movie.

Unless you are totally allergic to zombies I would recommend watching this movie. I would especially recommend it if you are not normally into zombie movies. You are likely to be surprised.