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    Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

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    “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” quickly shows itself to be a gimmicky film whose biggest fans will be men and women (mostly women) who have read the novel and seen numerous other movie adaptations. You will enjoy the picture if you have seen Colonel Darcy, Elizabeth Bennet and all of the other characters so many times that they just want to see something, anything new. As a horror comedy it contains some laughs and there are plenty of zombies, but if you’re coming into “P&P&Z” not knowing who the Bennet sisters are and unfamiliar with the works of Jane Austen, I don’t think you’ll care for it much.

    In 19th century England, zombies roam freely. The rich send their children to Asia in order to learn the art of self-defence while the King’s are at war with the walking dead. The Bennet sisters – Elizabeth (Lily James), Jane (Bella Heathcote), Kitty (Suki Waterhouse), Lydia (Ellie Bamber) and Mary (Millie Brady) are not typical ladies. Mrs. Bennet (Sally Phillips) wants to see them married to wealthy suitors but her daughters are too progressive for most. They’re cultured in the art of cooking, drawing, sewing, sword fighing, martial arts, conversation and wit. Elizabeth finds herself drawn to a handsome soldier Mr. Wickham (Jack Huston) but also inexplicably attracted to and repulsed by the man’ rival Colonel Darcy (Sam Riley) What’s a progressive woman to do in a world of narrow-minded men… and zombies?

    I have not read the novel, nor have I ever seen any adaptations of “Pride and Prejudice”. I think I can read between the lines enough to get it. The book is about a woman that is considered ahead of her time and therefore undesirable. 19th century women were expected to be blank slates upon which their husbands would draw whatever they wanted. They married for money and provided heirs; were expected to look pretty and say little. Not Elizabeth. The whole story is about drama and choices, about her figuring out if people are who they claim to be when they show affection towards her, whether or not her sisters will find themselves in undesirable marriages etc. It’s about relationships and that’s something we can all relate to. I bet the novel contains many juicy bits of dialogue and poignant moments of drama. If you’ve ever been singled out and mocked because of something you thought was special about yourself, I wager it has a lot of appeal. So why not just throw a bunch of zombies in?

    I call “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” a gimmicky film because I do not see a homogenous blend here. It’s just the Jane Austen novel with a bunch of undead thrown in. The fact that there are zombies does not reinforce the themes of the story, not really. What it adds is a bunch of scenes where ladies swing swords, shoot pistols and do karate in pretty dresses. I found myself – I wouldn’t say bored – but often restless. Just as you’ll start to get invested in the drama of Elizabeth and her would-be husband, a bunch of brain-eaters show up. You get annoyed at the interruption until eventually you put yourself in the mood to want to see zombies and then it shifts again, back to the drama. This movie can’t win. It’s two radically different things smashed together and you’re constantly re-adjusting your mind to be able to pay attention to what is happening.

    At 108 minutes long, we’ve got the plot of “Pride and Prejudice squeezed into 54 minutes’ time (not enough) and the rest is padded with generic zombie stuff. The prospect of seeing grave crawlers in a 19th century England setting excited me. They had sabres, but pistols were one-shot deals. Cars weren’t invented meaning that your main means of transportation (horses) were made of meat. How would people of this time react to this zombie plague? Turns out they act the same way people in the 21st century do. There are no interesting twists here, just usual zombie stuff. If you get bit, you’ll get infected. Once dead, you eat people’s brains. There’s an attempt to bring in a twist, but in the end it doesn’t mean anything to the plot. You can see what is going to happen in the horror part of this horror comedy from a mile away.

    I see this film as one that was green-lit not because of the plot or even the premise. The title was all they needed. In my book they took the wrong monster to cross this story with. Have 19th century England be plagued with vampires! Imagine if Elizabeth had to choose between Mr. Darcy and his wealthy family of bloodsuckers or the human Mr. Wickham. Or if it was popular among rich families to have their children turned into immortals on the day of their wedding and Elizabeth was resisting the advances of men because she, unlike others could realize how messed up it would be to feed off of the poor, or be with a man that believed women shouldn’t be allowed to vote for eternity! There you could have had the entirety of “P&P” with just a few tweaks and you would have still had the novelty of throwing in some horror stuff in your story.

    The idea of “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” is more interesting than the film itself. As someone who came in interested in seeing the zombies, I was disappointed. I found the material based on Austen’s book to be much more exciting, but I can’t recommend the film for that aspect alone. They’ve changed so many things around and omitted so much that you would never choose this film as your favourite adaptation of the book. Like most gimmicky pictures there is a niche group who will enjoy “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”. For the rest, it’s not very memorable. (Theatrical version on the big screen, February 10, 2016)

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    adamwatchesmovies@  15.2.2016 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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