Much Ado About Nothing

In the right context, witty banter can be brilliant.  In other cases, it can be extremely annoying.  What makes one use of a snippy comment endearing as opposed to something that forever ruins a character forever?  Context.  No person seems to walk that fine line between clever dialogue and aggravating self-indulgent smugness better than Joss Whedon.

He honed the skill on Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly.  I wasn't really a big fan of Dollhouse, but from the few episodes I saw, it tended to slip a bit into smugness but came back up before I moved on.  He did quite well on Avengers, making a group of superheroes also human in how they spoke to each other.

So, what happens when a man who is almost best known for how he has characters talk takes on a project where he gets nothing to do with the dialogue?

You get a remarkably unique movie experience.

Warm Bodies

Hollywood has actually done a pretty good job converting the classic plays of Shakespeare over to more updated, modern styles.  For instance, 10 Things I Hate About You is pretty high on my "I enjoyed this" list, though that might also have to do with the fact that Julia Stiles is in it.  You have films like Forbidden Planet, My Own Private Idaho, O, The Lion King, all doing a really good job bringing his classic works into the modern day.  In fact, it's hard to think of any that were just simply a bad telling of his stori-oh wait.

...so, yeah, there is that.

Now, if any story has been done to death, it's Romeo and Juliet.  Two young people fall in love, their parents disapprove, and either love wins in the end or everybody dies.  If I just spoiled the plot, then shame on you.

So, how do you keep the story line interesting and fresh?  By taking the "Romeo dies" part and putting it at the beginning!

Here's my review of Warm Bodies.