REVIEW: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Much in the vein of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, the Natalie Portman produced Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is a movie that is based off of a gimmick of something recognizable pitted against something supernatural.  Perhaps we have Twilight to thank for people feeling the need to reimagine created creatures of old.  The franchise practically neutered vampires, so why not take some interesting turns with fictional beasts.

The main thing that this movie has going for it, which is zombies intertwined with romance, is actually something that we have seen before.  Both Shaun of the Dead and Warm Bodies walked this line, and did so with style.  I will have some people arguing with me over Warm Bodies, but I'm not ashamed to admit that I liked it and thought that it did what it set out to do with personality and charisma.  Those two descriptive words, personality and charisma, are what elevated it, and they are exactly what is missing from the majority of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

The movie takes the original concept of the source material, follows it rather faithfully, and inserts a zombie apocalypse into the fray.  The young Bennet girls aren't just looking for mates, they are trained in the arts of bad assedness.  Zombies need to be on the look out, these girls are dressed for both the ball and for battle.  Lily James takes on the lead role of Elizabeth, the girl who is to cross paths with Mr. Darcy.  I am a fan of the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice.  I like the interplay between Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfayden.  He seemed like a jerk, they didn't get along.  Wonderful loath at first sight.

This 2016 attempt at telling this tale falls with the key relationship.  Mr. Darcy, played by Sam Riley, is a character whose super power  appears to be to bore the audience.  It is a flat, lacking performance that makes him a tortuous tool, causing me to check out mentally.  I don't believe the fault here lies with Riley.  In the last half hour of the movie his character finally has some emotion and Riley plays it well.  I think the problem is the writing and directing of Darcy that makes him to be so flat for the majority of the movie.

The entire movie, unfortunately, is fairly flat outside of the last half hour.  There are little spurts of zombies getting beat up by our young Bennet girls, and those scenes are a lot of fun.  The problem is that in between those scenes the movie falls into being faithful to the source material.  While this is a gimmick, I do believe it is a fun one that could have worked better.  Perhaps less worry about literal marriage between the two elements and more thematically being based on Pride and Prejudice would have been better.  The moments, well most of them, that are without zombies are dull.  This is where deviating from the source material some would have been good.  Director Burr Steers, who also wrote the screenplay, does well at the fun, campy zombie action, but isn't able to deliver the background story with much excitement.

There is an exception to this, however.  The role of Mr. Collins added quite a wonderful freshness.  I really enjoyed Tom Hollander's performance in the 2005 film, and I was worried that Parson Collins would be as uninspired as most of the other non-zombie related bits.  I was wrong about that.  Former Doctor Who star Matt Smith brought a delightful interpretation of the character, and I couldn't help but feel a lot of that performance must have been bits that were improvised by Smith.  The mere existence of Smith shows that the non zombie scenes could have still been fun.

Alas, though, they weren't.  As mentioned, part of the problem as an abysmal Mr. Darcy.  You also have such an energetic young talent in Lily James who could have brought a lot more to the role if allowed.  Knightley had so much zest and vigour in the 2005 film, and that energy from the Elizabeth character is missing.  Eighty percent of this film is a recreation of Pride and Prejudice, and it falls flat.  In a movie with such a crazy premise as this, the characters and their interactions should have been a great deal more ramped up.  We don't need straight forward Victorian drama in a movie about the living dead attacking the city of London.

It is thankful that there is a fun ending to this movie.  The action sequences leading up to it are so far in between and short that it was very easy to forget that this film was supposed to have fights and battles.  Heads get blown up, limbs get severed, and the pretty daughters kick ass.  The lead man in this film is not required to save the damsel, which was quite nice to see.

This is an unfortunate movie, because while it was based off of a gimmick that should have been a sketch in a variety show, there was some sense of promise that it could have been a laugh-filled, campy adventure with an unlikely backdrop.  It's desire to stick as strictly to the original tale as it did is what ruined the movie.  Perhaps with a different director with a different skill set, this could have worked.  It didn't here, though.  Movies aren't meant to be watched just for a satisfying finale, but as entertainment as a whole.  And, this goes to a number of films made in the last few year, movies should focus on being stand alone instead of using the final shot to set up a sequel that will absolutely never happen.

Rating - 2 out of 4 stars