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Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016) ★★

&NewLine;<p>There is something to be said for any film that takes risks&period; And in a sense&comma; every film production takes some risk&comma; by virtue of being a project without guaranteed commercial success&period; Investors put millions into the production&comma; distribution&comma; and marketing of an artistic endeavor that could be a complete box office flop&period; But sometimes the filmmakers reach too far and take too many stylistic and narrative risks&period; Such is the case with Burr Steers’ historical comedy-horror&comma; <em>Pride and Prejudice and Zombies<&sol;em> &lpar;2016&rpar;&period; Based on Seth Grahame-Smith’s novel of the same name&comma; the film attempts to answer the question&colon; what if Jane Austen’s famous love story took place in the middle of a zombie epidemic&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><em>Pride and Prejudice and Zombies<&sol;em> follows the same plot as the original<em>&nbsp&semi;Pride and Prejudice&nbsp&semi;<&sol;em>novel&comma; to a point&period; The film focuses on the Bennet family and the many love entanglements of the daughters&period; The central romantic storyline belongs to Elizabeth Bennet and Colonel Darcy&period; However&comma; the story drops the characters into a version of London under threat of invasion by a zombie horde&period; The film actually opens with a very impressive sequence using painted cut-outs to introduce the zombie premise &lpar;pictured below&rpar;&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size">What Is the Theme of <em>Pride and Prejudice and Zombies<&sol;em>&quest;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The citizenry has built huge walls and canals around the city&comma; and only recently have the upper class ventured out to their fortified country estates&period; All of the Bennet women are trained in Asian martial arts&period; Although in practice&comma; very little of the combat looks like anything other than standard action movie swordplay&period; Much of the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;comedy” in the film arises from seeing proper&comma; 19th-century Englishwomen eviscerating the undead&comma; even as certain male characters&comma; namely the foppish Parson Collins &lpar;played by Matt Smith&rpar;&comma; cower in fear&period; This places Pride and Prejudice and Zombies comfortably within the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;2014&sol;04&sol;04&sol;reversing-traditional-gender-representations-in-the-contemporary-zom-com&sol;&num;google&lowbar;vignette">Zom Com genre<&sol;a>&comma; though it&&num;8217&semi;s not one of the best entries I&&num;8217&semi;ve encountered&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full wp-image-690"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;04&sol;pride-prejudice-zombies&period;jpg" alt&equals;"What is the theme of pride and prejudice and zombies&quest;" class&equals;"wp-image-690"&sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-element-caption">The film mostly recounts the same themes from Jane Austen&&num;8217&semi;s classic novel&comma; with a few major changes&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>But&comma; unfortunately for the investors&comma; average filmgoers and niche-fan fiction enthusiasts are two completely different kinds of audiences&period; When the production companies pumped &dollar;28 million into this project&comma; they tried to market the film in a way that would appeal to the masses&period; Instead&comma; they should have focused on the small subset of fans who enjoy this kind of revisionist&comma; over-the-top fiction&period; Sure&comma; the novel made it on the New York Times bestseller list and probably sold thousands and thousands of copies&comma; but the filmmakers needed to convince millions of people to pay money to see their movie&period; Beyond the die-hard fans of the book&comma; few people would appreciate the outlandish premise&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full wp-image-689"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;04&sol;ppz&lowbar;c&lowbar;ben&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Pride and Prejudice and Zombies opening scene" class&equals;"wp-image-689"&sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-element-caption">The opening credits introduce the story with a beautiful tracking shot of painted cut-outs&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The central problem with this film is that the two main ingredients&comma; Jane Austen and Zombies&comma; simply do not fit together very well&period; Now&comma; to be sure&comma; it is certainly an original idea&period; To put the prim and proper culture of Jane Austen’s world with the blood and brutality of a zombie apocalypse sounds like a recipe for entertainment&period; However&comma; when watching the film&comma; one constantly wonders for whom it was intended&period; The filmmakers seem to hope that the film will be great because the two central elements don’t fit together on paper&comma; but this strategy backfires&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size">Jane Austen and Zombies&colon; A Subpar Attempt to Cross Genres<&sol;h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Jane Austen fans will surely dismiss it as a ridiculous and silly bastardization of her work&period; Alternatively&comma; die-hard zombie fans will likely feel turned off by the romanticism and slow-moving love story&period; I have not read Graham-Smith’s novel&comma; but I imagine that it works far better in print than on film&period; The problem is that this film cannot decide what it wants to be&period; Is it a fast-paced&comma; gory zombie film&comma; or a slow&comma; period romance&quest; Having watched the film&comma; it is difficult&comma; maybe impossible&comma; to be both simultaneously&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Visually&comma; <em>Pride and Prejudice and Zombies<&sol;em> is surprisingly well shot and dedicated to the details of the time period&period; The costumes&comma; sets&comma; and even understated lighting all take from the 2005 film adaptation of <em>Pride and Prejudice<&sol;em>&period; However&comma; when the zombies come into play&comma; the cracks begin to show&period; While the filmmakers did not shy away from showing blood and gore&comma; the visual effects don&&num;8217&semi;t always impress&period; Many of the decaying zombies look lackluster at best&comma; especially considering the film’s robust budget&period; Nonetheless&comma; the combat scenes offer intermittent thrills in an otherwise boring film&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full wp-image-688"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;04&sol;Zombies&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Pride and Prejudice and Zombies death scene" class&equals;"wp-image-688"&sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-element-caption">The special effects are often underwhelming&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Besides its commercial failure&comma; <em>Pride and Prejudice and Zombies<&sol;em> fails to entertain in the ways that it should&period; When you have a film with an outlandish or ridiculous premise &lpar;along the lines of David R&period; Ellis’ <em>Snakes on a Plane<&sol;em> or Don Coscarelli&&num;8217&semi;s <em>Bubba Ho-Tep<&sol;em>&rpar;&comma; the filmmakers need to lean into it&period; They must produce and market the film in a way that puts the ridiculousness at the forefront&period; Audiences will come out in droves to see an over-the-top film that doesn&&num;8217&semi;t take itself too seriously&period; However&comma; <em>Pride and Prejudice and Zombies<&sol;em> never really strikes that balance&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h3 class&equals;"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size">Final Thoughts<&sol;h3>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>While the zombie aspects of the film do feel somewhat ridiculous and sensationalized &lpar;as they should&rpar;&comma; the filmmakers want us to take the love story much too seriously&period; These two incongruous tones leave the film searching for an identity&period; With a runtime of 108 minutes&comma; it feels overly long&period; To make matters worse&comma; the filmmakers dedicate much of the narrative to romance&comma; which is probably not what would have attracted audiences to the film in the first place&period; I doubt that most people walked into the movie theater thinking&comma; <em>I can’t wait to see a beautiful Jane Austen love story<&sol;em>&period; It’s much more likely that they thought&comma; <em>I can’t wait to see a ridiculous&comma; over-the-top zombie movie set in Regency-era England<&sol;em>&period; People in the latter group will surely be disappointed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>If you are one of the few people who love Jane Austen and zombies&comma; this film might appeal to you&period; However&comma; for most people&comma; it is simply a boring&comma; mediocre adaptation with a few thousand undead thrown in&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h3 class&equals;"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size">Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Movie Rating&colon; &starf;&starf; out of 5<&sol;h3>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>If you&&num;8217&semi;d like to watch <em>Pride and Prejudice and Zombies<&sol;em> &lpar;2016&rpar;&comma; it is currently available to purchase <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B01BECSDJC&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;sp&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;camp&equals;1789&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B01BECSDJC&amp&semi;linkId&equals;84fd4a24e7e49a8003eaa4f5ec3f162a">via Amazon here<&sol;a>&period; For more film reviews like this one&comma; check out the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;">Philosophy in Film Homepage<&sol;a>&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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