This week, my coworkers and I went to see the film Warm Bodies, a zombie comedy romance (zomedy romance?), which was surprisingly good for a February release.
Let me tell you a little bit about how studios release films. You may have noticed this as a casual moviegoer, but I can tell you, dear reader, as a former theater employee, that studios will release certain kinds of films for certain times of year.
This is not set in stone, but it seems like a reasonable generalization for me to say that the "best" films are usually released around Christmas. I assume this to be because that's when Oscar nominations are decided and there's a big audience because people are off from school and work and looking for something to do. "Christmas" in the world of movies being hereby defined as the week before Thanksgiving or so until New Year's. These are your obvious Oscar pics (this year, things like Silver Linings Playbook, that movie about the tsunami, etc.), your Spielbergs (it's a trend! Last year, War Horse was released ON CHRISTMAS and Lincoln was released earlier, but obviously still in plenty of time for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays) and your star vehicles for actors and actresses looking to pick up that elusive Oscar (George Clooney in The Descendents comes to mind, though there are certainly others). There are usually a fair number of pictures aimed at families, Christmas-themed films and big fantasy epics (ALL of the Lord of the Rings movies, including the new Hobbit were released in November/December, along with several of the Harry Potter franchise). For some reason the James Bond films have been Christmas releases too, at least the last few. And most of the movie musicals—Phantom, RENT, and of course, Les Miserables.
Over the summer (being hereby defined as the beginning of May until some time in July), there is a smattering of big, popcorn-flick blockbusters, things like Transformers and Pirates of the Caribbean. Movies with big budgets or big names behind them also seem to get released this time of year, things like the upcoming Baz Luhrman The Great Gatsby, although that was originally scheduled to be a Christmas release, or any of the recent Woody Allen pictures, Midnight in Paris or To Rome, With Love. Or Inception, but maybe Chistopher Nolan was just confused Summer is another time of year when there's a guaranteed audience, as people are taking vacation time and looking for something to do. Films aimed at families are released over the summer, like every Pixar film ever. Superhero movies are nearly always released at this time—see last summer's three, Avengers, The Amazing Spiderman, and The Dark Knight Rises.
The "other" times of year—January, February, March, most of April and August, September and October—studios release films they think won't do as well against these "bigger" movies. Horror films, especially in October and January, romantic comedies, particularly in February and movies the studio is not sure about. A good example of this last one is last year's The Hunger Games. It was based on a rabidly popular Young Adult novel series, but no one was really sure how the adaptation would play amongst wide audiences. So rather than pit it against the likes of Spiderman and The Dark Knight Rises, they chose to release it in March, where it had far less competition. And it did well. Because the audience wasn't fractured by other, probably better films.
So what does this have to do with Warm Bodies? It was a February release, and a double punch of zombie (horror) romance/comedy. I've discovered a pattern—I do not like horror films in general, nor zombie flicks. But the few existing zombie comedies (zomedies??) I enjoy. My list here includes this film, Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland, as the only films of this genre, if you can really call it a genre, that I've seen. They're genuinely funny. And Warm Bodies is no exception. Sure, a lot of the funny parts were in the trailer. And of the eight or so people in that theater on a Monday night, my friend and I were the only ones laughing really loud and hard at many of the jokes, but this little movie is really pretty funny. The voiceover of R (the male lead) fills in the obvious problem that a zombie character can't really provide much in the lines of good dialogue. Some of the things he "says" made me think of my own inner monologue. "Say something human, say something human." "How's it going?" "Nailed it." The timing was just right enough to make lines like this work. And it was a little cheesy, but come on, from the same studio as Twilight, right? So they couldn't help themselves but to have a little cheese.
I have read the novel upon which Warm Bodies is based, and it's pretty good too. The film sticks fairly closely to the novel, though you learn a lot more about R and the zombie world in it than in the film. I liked the changes they made to adapt it for film. I thought they really helped it to work in the medium. Overall, Warm Bodies was decent... for a February release. I didn't go in expecting much and I came out pleasantly surprised.
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