I like zombie movies; I like Jane Austen novels. This doesn't mean I like them together - I also like both pizza and snorkeling, but I suspect trying them at the same time would be a less than satisfactory experience.
I am not as offended by this mash-up as many apparently are. Yes, it's a weaselly way to use someone else's (classic) work for money - but, when a book still inspires parodies and pastiches two hundred years later, it means it's still vital and relevant.
So, Jane Austen and zombies. Set in an alternate history England overrun by a zombie plague, the movie follow spirited, katana-wielding Elizabeth Bennet (Lily James) and proud zombie hunter Darcy (Sam Riley) as they meet, clash and fall in love while trying to survive the undead horde.
This could have been charmingly stupid, but it required a person of great talent at the helm to make the charming prevail over the stupid - say, Shaun of the Dead's Edgar Wright, a man able to milk every single opportunity for off-beat humour and to get a laugh even from the way he frames someone being offered a slice of cake. Director Burr Steers doesn't bring anything special to the table; set-pieces aren't exciting, horror isn't scary, humor isn't funny. The result is a badly stitched up Frankenstein monster barely limping through its 107 minutes.
Even social satire, a promising angle (think of the clash between formal, stuffy upper-class 18th century Britain and a zombie epidemic) is mostly overlooked.
Maybe producers expected this would be a perfect date movie, with romance for girls, zombies for boys and comedy for both - judging from its box office results, general audiences didn't take the bait. I guess we may be spared the likes of Wuthering Heights and Werewolves, War and Peace and Aliens, Great Expectations and the Mummy.
5/10
I am not as offended by this mash-up as many apparently are. Yes, it's a weaselly way to use someone else's (classic) work for money - but, when a book still inspires parodies and pastiches two hundred years later, it means it's still vital and relevant.
So, Jane Austen and zombies. Set in an alternate history England overrun by a zombie plague, the movie follow spirited, katana-wielding Elizabeth Bennet (Lily James) and proud zombie hunter Darcy (Sam Riley) as they meet, clash and fall in love while trying to survive the undead horde.
This could have been charmingly stupid, but it required a person of great talent at the helm to make the charming prevail over the stupid - say, Shaun of the Dead's Edgar Wright, a man able to milk every single opportunity for off-beat humour and to get a laugh even from the way he frames someone being offered a slice of cake. Director Burr Steers doesn't bring anything special to the table; set-pieces aren't exciting, horror isn't scary, humor isn't funny. The result is a badly stitched up Frankenstein monster barely limping through its 107 minutes.
Even social satire, a promising angle (think of the clash between formal, stuffy upper-class 18th century Britain and a zombie epidemic) is mostly overlooked.
Maybe producers expected this would be a perfect date movie, with romance for girls, zombies for boys and comedy for both - judging from its box office results, general audiences didn't take the bait. I guess we may be spared the likes of Wuthering Heights and Werewolves, War and Peace and Aliens, Great Expectations and the Mummy.
5/10