Pride and Prejudice VS. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

 vs.

Pride and Prejudice is an engaging read that has left an indelible mark in the heart of millions by its satire, characters, prose, and flow. It follows the young Bennet sisters in early eighteenth-century England challenging social class, rejecting proposals from insensible men, and learning of their prejudices that they each hold. Ok, I admit it may not sound that entertaining to some, but how about this? THE SAME PLOT but with ZOMBIES IN IT. Yeah, as you already learned from my title and my past mentions, "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" is a thing.

Now the Bennet sisters are zombie killers, trained in China (kind of a ninja thing that goes on), and instead of lame sowing while having conversation, they are now polishing guns. My question is: who is this supposed to appeal to? Will readers of Pride and Prejudice like their Pride and Prejudice with all that zombies can bring? Will fans of the zombie genre take solace that this is the change the genre needed? In short, no. It had a budget of 25 million and proceeded to have a revenue of 16 million in the box office -- not the best for the movie that was already downtrodden with unanimously negative critic reviews. But perhaps the world was mistaken, and perhaps I, a recent reader and admirer of the book and not much else, can see if it deserved the reaction it underwent.

Let's examine plot first. In the book, its first line lets you know what you're getting into, a satire on upper class culture. "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of good fortune must be in want of a wife." The same goes with the movie, it's the style of Pride and Prejudice with zombies arbitrarily in it. "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains."  The similarities don't end there however, the movie follows every plot point of the book, every major point. Maybe I should hold off on disclosing my opinion until the end, but I must admit, that's kind of hilarious. There's a scene in in the book where Darcy proposes to the protagonist,  Elizabeth, and she can't believe it and denies him with little civility because he is viewed as a pride and ungenerous man by her. Darcy can't accept what he hears from her and walks out of the room downcast. The exact same scene exists in the book, but before Darcy exits you know what happens? Elizabeth kicks Darcy (trained zombie killer, remember) in a fit of rage right in the gut and sends him flying back to the other side of the room and then proceeds to throw books at him. The regular conversation doesn't stop there though, it's just that now Elizabeth is flailing a fire poker while Darcy can only dodge. It doesn't stop there though, Darcy retaliates and its a fire poker versus a mail opener. Scenes like that are hilarious in the absurdity of it all.

The addition of zombies surprisingly did not reduce any of the original book's plot, they just reworked the original book's plot to fit with their zombies.  Wickham, a character who was prominent in the third act of the book, still plays his part, stealing one of the Bennet sisters for personal gain. Originally it was to pay off outstanding debt by getting married, now it's to have a human to join in on the zombie aristocrats at the Church of St. Lazarus. I'll get to the zombie aristocrats later. So overall, I felt that the plot was just as its own as the book, each addition of zombies actually worked in the Pride and Prejudice context.

You would think the tone would be totally incongruous when jumping to a run-of-the-mill ball to a zombie attack. But it works! The tone in the book was never that cheery and the movie knows that and uses every moment in how it is organized to have the satirical and ironic tone of the original. It feels like the movie even adds to the commentary of the book in some areas. They have to have this one ball in the book. And in the movie the upper class has to have the ball, while the world dies around them. But the catch is, while the world of Pride and Prejudice feels realistic, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies doesn't. I know it may seem obvious, but I'm referring to the "zombies" themselves. They're not zombies. Let's pull out a zombie checklist to illustrate this.

• Non-communicative growling or howling -- no, zombie aristocrats can talk just as well as any human
• Semi-catatonic state -- no, zombie aristocrats are not mindless
• Unemotional -- no, zombie aristocrats clearly show cunning and joy
• They crave brains -- yes, it's they're only zombie characteristic

Zombie mom with zombie baby played a clever trick on the Bennets posing as a wrecked traveler at first to get their guard down. She then attacked. Her head got blown off by Elizabeth.

Listen: whoever made this, when you say zombies have zombies. Don't create cannibals. In the movie, being a zombie is more like you are a harbinger of Mono, than a decaying undead zombie. One of the plot twists injected right at the tip of the climax is that Wickham, the person who stole one of the Bennet sisters, was a zombie all along! How do we know this? There are patches of red skin on his stomach *gasp*, of course, a zombie! Although the zombie-slaying moments are awesomely choreographed and make you feel cool just watching them, a fan of the zombies genre would surely be disappointed by the inconsistency in what a zombie actually is.

"Sharknado"

Going into the book, my expectations were that I would enjoy it. My thoughts were that it is still popular 200 years later for a reason. It met my expectations, but didn't exceed because of a slow start and I never find a theme like love can surpass all bounds that poignant which was its ending theme. Going into the movie, I was expecting Syfy movie quality and all that comes with it, hence the shark.
What I ended up with movie that I found enjoyable, that did not destroy the original source material, and instead added on to it with out producing a jarring effect in tone. Did I enjoy it as much as the book, no way, but it was way better than it had to be and that's impressive on its own. I would recommend "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" to anyone who liked the book and is looking for some entertainment. Anybody else, however, it's not really worth your time unless you just want to be mindlessly entertained.