Finally, A Zombie movie with some heart

My favorite part of the whole film was the balance of the inverse relationship. On the front end you have a world of zombies infiltrated by a small population of uninfected humans and "R", played by Nicholas Hoult, develops an immediacy of feelings for Julie, played by Teresa Palmer. Denying his zombie instincts, he chooses to protect Julie instead of devouring her. So he leads her further into his world, keeping her safe. Eventually the tables turn and she returns back to the safety of the world the survivors have created. But she came back changed all the same. R ventures into the dangers of the human world to pursue Julie. There's a comparable nature to the classic of Romeo and Juliet, which I'm sure played absolutely zero part in inspiring the character names at all, where unlikely oppositions find extraordinary circumstances that bring them together. But I sincerely appreciate the reciprocal of the narrative where instead of tragedy prevailing in the Shakespearean presentation, R and Julie actually achieve the opposite, bringing that inversion around to full value. I think the crafting of this story was wonderfully designed. It was accessible while still being a measure of elevated over a standard rom-com, or even a zombie movie really. The resulting film was delightful in the best sense.

Another aspect of the narrative that I found considerably pleasant was the addition of the "boneys". By creating a second class of truly terrifying zombies who had given up even on the level of sentience that R accounts for as narrator of the film, we facilitate an "enemy of my enemy is my friend" situation. It's a little straightforward but this isn't a movie built on a great deal of subtle revelation. Regardless, I had a thorough appreciation of the setup of a final confrontation from early on in the establishment of the narrative elements. I almost always enjoy a good rom-com but they are incredibly formulaic. There are certainly elements of that structure in this film. So it's not entirely abandoned. But instead of similarly relying on a big romantic gesture to bring everything full circle, we have a military conflict where the boneys attack and the military and regular zombies have to pair up to save the day. I just felt like this was a really fun way to punch up the finale with a bit of surprise and nuance. It wasn't elaborate but it didn't have to be. It simply provided a little extra involvement on the way to a conclusion of the film.

The one thing I will say that was a bit subversive, though it wasn't terrifically consequential, was the billing of Dave Franco in the film. It's not like I haven't already revealed several much larger spoilers, and it happens very early on, but super late spoiler alert, Dave Franco totally dies at the beginning of the film and is just dead throughout most of it. There are cutaway scenes of memories that still involve him. So he's not fully out of view. But I will say I was looking forward to Franco's involvement in the film. It was a little like Steven Segal in Executive Decision where he was just gone and I spent the whole movie expecting him to come back and he just never did. So I can't necessarily consider it a significant detriment to the movie, but I was a little disappointed.

I will say in a similar capacity, I was a little bummed at how underused John Malkovich was. I know it's not a movie necessarily about him. He's just part of the supporting cast. But for such a big name to have such a small role was similarly disappointing. None of this is to say that Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer weren't enough. They did a spectacular job helming the cast. But I have to believe there's other levels of conflict that achieve a greater sense of urgency or magnitude if we have a fuller and richer involvement of Malkovich in the cast. Even when he is, it's mostly as an embittered old man who simply represents the force opposing the possibility for corpses to turn back to human. There's no Malkovich expertise adding a lot of value to this singular minded protest. And even in it, his problem appears to mostly be confined to the emotional toll that losing his wife took on him. It's a footnote in a singular conversation. We didn't see it. We didn't hear about it. It just happened in a footnote of some relatively throw away dialogue. So it's not a huge miss but it does just feel like another get for the credits on the film but a waste in what actually could have been if the story had been crafted a little differently.

As I said initially, I really did enjoy this film. It falls firmly in the horror category and it doesn't necessarily shy away from it. There's comedic elements in the romance which does make it's overall tone less threatening but they don't abandon it. There were missteps in the cast and story but they weren't egregious. And even in acknowledging the flaws, our strained relationship and it's resolution through the impeccable acting of Hoult and Palmer was a great deal of fun to observe. They played off each other well. They had great chemistry despite interactive dialogue limitations. In the end, everything came together in a very satisfying capacity. I think I have to land on a B- with this movie. Overall it's a B quality film but I think I have to knock them within that structure on the missed application of some of the acting prowess they had on hand. I acknowledge that in 2013, Dave Franco might not have been as well defined star power but that doesn't mean his ability was any less. And Malkovich was certainly available to do more heavy lifting. So I ding them accordingly but a B- still seems like a considerably positive outing for this film. It might not have fully reinstated my appreciation for zombie culture at large, but I had a lot of fun with this flick nonetheless. So we'll call it here as we are getting close to the end of week three already. October is steadily moving past us. We'll have to wait and see what day 19 has in store for us next! So stay tuned and I'll catch you on the flip side.