With Warm Bodies, director Jonathan Levine (50/50) takes on the novel by  Isaac Marion, a zombie-genre favorite (Marion’s prequel novella, The New Hunger, was just released as an e-book).  Warm Bodies the film gives just enough of a spin on current zombie mythology to keep things fresh, but keeps enough “zombie-ness” to please genre fans.  This mashup of love story, zombie movie and Shakespeare send-up could find a wide audience.  It’s a quirky, fun film that doesn’t take itself too seriously and yet still delivers a few Deep Thoughts about life, and how we live it.  Not too shabby for a film relegated to the dreaded February dumping ground.

Zombie “R” (it’s the only part of his name he still remembers) does the same thing every day; eat, shamble, stare vacantly at his surroundings.  He also likes to pick up random items that spark something in him; sunglasses, books, a snowglobe.  His “house”, an abandoned airplane, is littered with things he’s collected.  But one day as he’s searching for food (read: living humans), he meets living girl Julie.  He’s drawn to her and wants to keep her safe.  But is that him, or the brains of Julie’s boyfriend (that R just ate) talking?  And R isn’t the only one changing….

R is played by Nicholas Hoult, that adorable kid in About A Boy, but who geeks like me will remember as the pre-transformation Dr. Hank McCoy/Beast in X-Men: First Class.  Hoult gives good vacant stare, and his voice-overs in the film are delivered with a slyly amusing.  Bonus points for a fantastic American accent.  Teresa Palmer (Take Me Home Tonight) plays Julie, a living girl who is trying to balance having an overprotective dad with the zombie apocalypse.  Julie is more than your typical zombie-movie love interest, and in Warm Bodies she’s given much more to do than just run and scream.  (Though she does do both, and admirably.)  Palmer holds her own against John Malkovich’s Grigio, Julie’s father and leader of their band of surviving humans.  Malkovich seems to be having fun here, with Grigio being a loving dad that also happens to be really, really paranoid.  But with zombies everywhere he gets a pass on that one.

The supporting cast should get a particular shout-out here, partially because they’re great in their roles but mostly because with glimpses of many different backstories, Warm Bodies often feels like an ensemble cast film.  Rob Corddry brings his best Daily Show deadpan (pun intended) as zombie M, R’s ZBFF, and another “undead American” who starts to change.  As Julie’s best friend, Analeigh Tipton (Crazy, Stupid, Love) plays off of Palmer and Hoult perfectly.

Zombies come in two flavors here; the humanesque and the creepy grey almost-skeletons called Boneys.  LOOK FX gives Boneys enough darkness and malice to be spooky, but leaves particularly gross details out of the picture so folks can focus on  comedy rather than gore.  Same goes with the makeup special effects.  Things are done in shades of grey and black, with very little of the usual Romero/Savini torn-up zombie body parts.  That works very well here, not only to keep things humorous rather than horrible, but because there’s a reason why these zombies aren’t particularly gruesome….

Warm Bodies achieves a fantastic look with set and art design, as long as your version of fantastic is post-apocalyptic suburban destruction.  Gotta say that mine is, at least when it comes to the astonishing level of detail in this film.  There’s the usual day-for-night filtering, but it’s used to illustrate R’s life before and after his brain induced epiphany.  Allusions to R(omeo) and Julie(t) are easy to spot in Levine and Marion’s screenplay, including a very cute scene with Julie on a balcony and R below.  But Warm Bodies doesn’t beat you over the head with these nods to Shakespeare, they’re only sly winks for folks paying attention.  As for me, my favorite bits are more modern, and revolve around the interaction between R and Julie.  For example, when Julie slowly begins to feel comfortable around R, she notices his collection of records.  She asks why vinyl; is he unable to work a cd player or iPod?  “Better sound”, says R.

Warm Bodies is a great Zombie Eye View of the zombie apocalypse.  It also asks some very interesting questions.  Are we really living, or are we more zombie than human?  What would it take to change the status quo?  And do you have what it takes to be an agent of change?  Wise zombie, that R.