Questions About "Warm Bodies"

When I first sat down to write this post I had a very difficult time trying to decide what to write about. The answer came when I realized I couldn't stop thinking about the film we were required to see over the weekend "Warm Bodies". It wasn't the intriguing plot or hotness of Teresa Palmer that kept my mind at work but several questions that went unanswered. While I understand that Hollywood is Hollywood and audiences need to give filmmakers a certain degree of freedom in order to make a film flow, there were many questionable instances in the film that got under my skin.

The first example was particularly annoying and very distracting durring the film. The fact R's teeth are gleaming white make it seem like he just returned from the dentist instead of stumbling around eating brains all day. I understand the director wouldn't have been able to develop the love story if R was completely revolting, but they definitely could have taken the zombie-look a bit further. Personally I feel the filmakers figured he wouldn't be opening his mouth very often because for the majority of the film he is just shrugging and nodding. This probably gave them the best opportunity to subtly make a zombie more attractive without making it too obvious.

The next thing that really bothered me was how quickly R, Marcus and other Zombies begin to talk. They went from groaning, grunting and sputtering single words to eloquently conducting full conversations with one another in a matter of days. You could argue that they already had the ability to converse and as they began to regain agency, speaking was just like riding a bike. Other evidence in the film supports this theory; for example, Marcus is able to drive the airport car flawlessly when he needs to save Julie and R from the bonies. I can't imagine he has been practicing driving that car around in his free time, though when R attempts to drive the BMW it doesn't work out quite as well. The car moves rather like a zombie in fact, and the human in R had certainly developed more than that in Marcus at this point.

The final question I have about the film is how this seemingly happy community of zombies and humans that is portrayed at the conclusion of the film works. First of all, am I really supposed to believe that the zombies hunger really just goes away because they realize they can still love? This question leads me to another question, what do the zombies that have changed eat? I suppose this could be answered by saying they eat animals or non-zombie corpses, but personally I would have liked it if they addressed it in the film.

While I may have a few criticisms about some of the choices made durring the film's production, I appreciate the story from a zombie scholar's perspective. I also admit I had some preconceptions about the film and was not expecting to be an intrigued as I was. While I realize I am at the beginning of my zombie education, I have never before seen an ending that has the zombie horde and humans learning to live together. It was quite refreshing to see a conclusion that didn't involve the entirety of one group being killed off. For this reason I feel the teenage love story I thought I was being forced to see has earned its place among other zombie movies of our generation.