A zombie outbreak has fallen upon the world of Jane Austen’s classic tale of the tangled relationships between lovers from different social classes in 19th century England. Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet (Lily James) is a master of martial arts and weaponry and the handsome Mr. Darcy (Sam Reilly) is a fierce zombie killer, yet the epitome of upper class prejudice. As the zombie outbreak intensifies, they must swallow their pride and join forces on the blood-soaked battlefield.
I will admit that I didn’t choose this for the “Pride and Prejudice” part but rather the “and Zombies” part. I will say that I’m familiar with the books Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith despite not reading either. I was personally just curious to see how the later would be depicted in a film. For those who still don’t know the story, I would just refer to the former. But for the “and Zombies” part, Elizabeth Bennet (James) is a martial arts master, while Mr. Darcy (Reilly) is a fierce killer but both are the epitome of upper class. When a zombie outbreak emerges, they must set that aside and join forces on the battlefield. One thing that I liked about this film was that the zombie crisis started immediately, and within the story before the film started, I liked this because I thought I would have to wait through “Pride and Prejudice” to get through the “and Zombies” part. I will say that there still is both but this still takes place in 19th century England and you’ll get what that entails but I liked how that was kept to a minimum. There was still a subplot involving Elizabeth and her sisters getting a husband which I understand but it did take a lot of focus from the story. Just because there’s a man and a woman, it doesn’t mean they have to fall in love. This could just be because of the Pride and Prejudice source material but I found the story to be slow at times. Zombies did not seem to get as much focus as I expected since they were just in the background while the real story was unfolding. There was still some zombie action but I would have liked to see more. The fighting I saw was exciting and also well choreographed but the film’s rating kind of hurt it here because it wasn’t as violent as I would have liked with the camera either being too far away or just cutting out at a good time. This was still exciting but it kind of took me out of the experience because I felt disconnected. Another problem I had here was that since there already was a zombie crisis, there was no clear direction in which the story was going and it was not clear as to the cause of the crisis. Of course I don’t think I would be spoiling anything saying this but the film leaves the door open for other films which could answer these questions but that fact does not help me now. The acting here was also decent with Matt Smith standing out as an overzealous pastor. Overall if you are looking for a decent zombie film, this one won’t disappoint but for those looking for more, you may be disappointed.
Score: 7/10
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.
