Romeo, the zombie

For several years, and increasingly in these past couple of years, the appearance of violence in movies has become a trend and a point of attraction to film spectators.  Last week, all my friends were talking about the new movie in the cinemas, Warm Bodies. So we decided to go see the movie. However, while watching the movie, it occurred to me that it’s a mixture of the movies: Twilight, Avatar and Romeo and Juliette. At the beginning of the movie we’re introduced to the main character as the outsider and after almost 15 minutes of the film it’s very predictable that the main issue being discussed is inequality but in the context of a more “cool” fictional theme, which is the theme of zombies.

According to Robert C. Bulman in chapter 3.2 of the book Cinematic Sociology, “The jungle metaphor conveniently summarizes the imagined differences between middle class suburban Americans and the poor urban students portrayed in the films.” What Bulman says applies to the film Warm Bodies if we closely examine the plot of the film from a sociological perspective. The living dead are the minorities or the “low brow” while the humans in the movie are the superior bourgeoisie who are doing their best to protect themselves from the danger that those corpses oppose on them. The movie highlights the issues of inequality and discrimination while using violence as a technique to achieve profitable success.

Furthermore, the similarity between the plot of Warm Bodies and Romeo and Juliette could be drawn in terms of the conflict that is being represented. Two families/groups are in a state of war against each other and the two lovers, who each belong to a different group, are the ones who bring those two families/groups together. On the other hand, the similarity that could be drawn between Warm Bodies and Twilight or Avatar is that all three movies are “sensation driven” meaning that they seek profit through the representation of “popcorn” violence. Although it could be argued that the representation of violence in the three movies is very minimal, it’s still evident that those movies are not aimed towards audiences who seek an intellectual experience while watching a movie.