Warm Bodies (2013) ***

A romantic-action-comedy zombie film, Warm Bodies is based on Isaac Marion's novel of the same title. It was directed and written by Jonathan Levine, staring Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, Rob Corddry and John Malkovich.
At its heart Warm Bodies is a romantic comedy with a twist. It uses the zombie genre as a backdrop for the plot, which makes it compelling even for non-zombie fans such as myself. The story includes some noble elements such as accepting the different, social responsibility, and, being a romance, of course, love as the ultimate cure. Nicholas Hoult is excellent in the leading role, enjoying good support by Teresa Palmer and Rob Corddry.

The main issue with this film is that somewhere midway through, the comedy is mostly dropped out in favor of action-drama. The lighter side of the story is not picked up until the very last few minutes of the film. That change of focus hurts Warm Bodies; it should have stayed a comedy all the way through as in its more serious part it suffers from too many empty holes with respect to credibility. With that said, Warm Bodies is fresh as both a Zombie film and a romantic comedy, and enjoyable enough to watch.