Because Matt Smith was in it, and also Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite novels.
I haven’t read the book (I don’t think I’ll be reading it anytime soon) but I have seen the franchise’s predecessor, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and found the movie to be entertaining. Of course I wasn’t quite as familiar with Mr. Lincoln’s life story as I am with the occupants of Loungbourn so that might muck my view on things up a bit.
Anyway, here’s the round up of Burr Steer’s (17 Again) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016).
Please note that there may be spoilers. Read at your own risk.
THE STORY:
Exactly what it says on the tin: Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice plus zombies. Mr. Bennet (Charles Dance – The Imitation Game) wants nothing else but to see his five girls – Jane (Bella Heathcote – Dark Shadows), Lizzie (Lily James – Cinderella), Mary (Millie Brady – Legend), Lydia (Ellie Bamber) and Kitty (Suki Waterhouse – Insurgent) – properly trained for combat, because times are unpredictable and the zombie plague infesting the whole of England is nearly getting out of control. Unfortunately his singular hope of seeing his daughters alive is not shared by his wife, Mrs. Bennet (Sally Philips – Bridget Jones’s Diary), who wants nothing else than to get them securely married off to rich gentlemen. When a Mr. Bingley (Douglas Booth – Noah) rents out their neighboring house, Mrs. Bennet is overcome with joy at the prospect of having an incredibly rich man marry one of her girls. Unbeknownst to her, Mr. Bingley comes with his best friend, Colonel Fitzwilliam Darcy (Sam Riley – Maleficent), who is as protective of his friend as he is adept at slaying zombies.
THE GOOD:
- Bella Heathcote was so pretty, like OMG. If this issn’t perfect casting, I don’t know what is – she’s incredibly very pretty but also has those big haunted eyes that actually work for this movie.
- That Lily James looks like a different person with dark hair. It’s a stupid thing to notice, I know, but I didn’t recognize her as Cinderella in this movie at all.
Her eyebrows aren’t as distracting with dark hair. - Lena Headey. While I don’t think that they gave her enough material to work with, I admit that having her play Lady Catherine de Bourgh was a nice and intriguing surprise. She definitely has enough balls to play such a ballsy character.
- Sally Philips because I think out of everybody in the cast, she was the one who nailed the perfect humorous tone this movie deserved.
- I can’t believe they got Charles Dance to be in this. Like seriously, was this a contractual obligation or something?
THE BAD:
- Matt Smith as Mr. Collins, because I could not look at him without seeing my dear beloved Eleven.
I kept half-expecting him to pull out the sonic and save them all - The plot was kind of stupid. Not the movie’s fault since it was based on a book, but this truly was one of the stupidest stories I’ve seen in a long time.
- The movie probably could’ve benefitted from a more humorous take on the story. Since the plot was already ridiculous, it probably would’ve been better to have a more comedic tone? Of course I’m no filmmaker but I found it quite odd to see these actors being oh-so serious when they were re-telling Pride and Prejudice with frakkin’ zombies.
- All of the cast probably could’ve used more time training for the physical stuff the film called for. Everybody – and I mean everybody – just looked too frail to be full-time zombie killers
THE UGLY:
- The Heaving Bossoms. Seriously, were those called for?
- The leads didn’t have much chemistry with each other. Personally I think this was ultimately the movie’s downfall because you just cannot have an Elizabeth Bennet and a Mr. Darcy who do not generate electric chemistry to light up a small town.
- That one scene where Sam Riley jumps into a pond. There was no point to that, other than to make the audience remember Colin Firth’s infamous wet-white shirt scene.
All in all, Burr Steer’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was an okay movie with an extremely stupid story. Certainly nothing worth seeing on the big screen (you’d be better of f waiting for it on cable TV), performances were all around mediocre. I truly think that the movie would’ve benefited massively had they only chose to sprinkle more humor. After all, the story was stupid enough to begin with, it hardly would’ve made any difference.
THE VERDICT: 4/10
*All photos are lifted from the film’s IMDB page.
