Movie Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Action Style

There is a surprising amount of martial arts combat as well as swordplay featured as basic survival tactics.  They are well choreographed not merely for functionality, but for the style and mannerism of people from this era.  It’s a shame there wasn’t more.

4/6

Action Frame

The DP’s approach to capturing the action is as traditional and static as that of a standard drama, so don’t expect sweeping panoramas, 360 bullet time shots or dynamic pulls and pushes.

2/5

Lead Performance

Lily James brings a level of respectability with her performance in a production of such tongue-in-cheek magnitude.  Her ability to sell dramatic moments as well as action intensity is uncanny, but perhaps her biggest challenge is pretending to be the slightly less attractive Bennet daughter, Elizabeth.  Sam Riley produces a persona of Mr. Darcy that could easily be carbon copied onto a proper production of Pride and Prejudice.  As with Ms. James, Mr. Riley produces a dignified performance despite the circumstances of the story.

5/6

Supporting Performance

The rest of the Bennet family is solid with Charles Dance as Mr. Bennet standing out.  Lena Headey and Matt Smith provide some name recognition to this production yet their contributions come off as a bit vapid.  Jack Huston is a decent villain as George Wickham whose performance is somewhat limited thanks to little screen time and a script not concerned with fleshing out all the details.

3/5

Music

An overall average application of dramatic orchestration, but certainly nowhere near marquee.

3/6

Sound F/X

As with the music, tolerable, but not handsome.

2/5

Digital F/X

Visual effects are exclusively limited to depicting zombie kill shots that aren’t completely cut away from and since these moments are also concerned with showing as little gore or blood as possible, they are too staccato to be appreciated. 

2/6

Special F/X

Firearms, canon fire and explosions are all you get here.  What is interesting is how various manors of the countryside are shown as having rather brutal looking mechanical fences ideal for chewing up the zombie horde.  What isn’t interesting is how these are never shown doing what they were built for in the film.

2/5

Costumes

It seems as if every British period piece brings its A-game regarding garb of the day.  A more generous application of leather for certain characters seems adequately functional given the circumstances.

5/6

Hair & Makeup

All of our heroes look quite beautiful, but let’s face it; this category is about the zombies.  While they aren’t quite in the same league as The Walking Dead TV show, the makeup work here is very impressive.

4/5

Exteriors

The historic leftovers in Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Old Basing and Surrey were excellent locations displaying beautiful landscapes and mansions for this setting.  Excellent location scouting.

4/6

Interiors

The production staff was very up to the challenge regarding the set dressings of every scene.  I was most impressed with the variety that was demonstrated between the domiciles of wealthy and middle classes as well as interiors that provoked a more horror aesthetic.

4/5

Hook

The source material hooks the reader with romantic drama, the perils of social gossip, finding one’s place in society and reconciling it all with the individual’s desire to remain free-spirited.  All of that is still a concern here, but takes a seat at the back of the bus seeing how zombies could pop out of anywhere to chew your face off.  Cramming them into the same space subtracts intrigue from both worlds.  

2/4

Conflict

Yes, humans vs. zombies are obvious, but these zombies are much more intelligent than your garden variety, brainless cannibal.  They represent a class not particularly well explored even in the source material: the poor.  The film’s true conflict depicts a hierarchal class system where those with less economic means are more susceptible to zombification and it is the wealthy that are fearful of the sheer numbers advantage the non-rich continue to bolster.  Hmm, this seems familiar given the state of Western politics today.

4/4

Resolution

Things appear wrapped up in a neat romantic way, but then they aren’t thanks to a neglected subplot that reminds the audience this is still a major problem.  Whoops!

1/4

Dialogue

The style and spirit of Jane Austen’s diction is all but perfectly channeled into this film, but it presents awkward difficulty given the circumstances of surviving zombies.  How functional is speaking like a Shakespearean sonnet while decapitating monsters so you can save your own skin?  The dialogue is very hit or miss as a result.

3/6

Exposition

Stuffing zombies into a pre-existing plot is not for the whimsical.  The rules of the story have been fundamentally altered, thus requiring a reconstruction of the source material’s major plot points to reflect this new reality.  This film skirts the issue by throwing an informative title crawl to the audience in the beginning and expects that to be enough for us to hurdle the endless plot gaps that follow.

1/5

Character Uniqueness

It appears that Elizabeth Bennet will always be a strong, female protagonist in any fiction she is reproduced and the fact she is now a kung-fu artist only makes her more interesting and heroic.  George Wickham appears at first glance to present an earnest attempt at challenging the status quo.  Perhaps if more time were devoted to developing his character, the audience would be better equipped to identify him as a tragic hero or a complex villain.

4/6

Character Relatability

The presence of zombies has the ability to level the playing field in a fictional setting, though not completely.  Thus, if the viewer can look beyond the wealth, who can’t identify with those dedicated to free individuality (Elizabeth), those dedicated to responsibility (Darcy) and those dedicated to themselves (Wickham)?

4/5