So, I am a big fan of author Seth Grahame-Smiths books. They are ludicrous, funny and subversive by the choice of their subject matter. He originally wrote Pride and Prejudice and Zombies mostly as a writing exercise, taking Jane Austen's seminal work of the trials and tribulations of the five Bennet sisters trying to get married in the 19th Century while navigating the pressures of the times. Grahame-Smith just adds the zombie apocalypse to the equation and you have a rollicking good time.
And this is precisely where the movie blows it. Now don't misunderstand. I did not dislike this film. I was entertained by it. But the problem is that the movie cannot figure out what it wants to be. I think it is mostly a grrl power movie where men are essentially useless, stupid or mysogynous or a combination of all three. All, of course, except for the forward-thinking father and Mr. Darcy, the romantic male lead, whom we are supposed to like anyway. Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with movies with strong female protagonists. Many of them are some of my favorites (Alien/Aliens, The Terminator, The Abyss, Strange Days, Mad Max: Fury Road immediately spring to mind). Other times, approaches the T.V. show Batman level of campiness. Other times, it feels like a post-feminist, ironic/satirical commentary on those days. Sometimes, it even tries to be faithful to the spirit of the original text.
But what the producers did not understand is what made this story so good in the first place. Grahame-Smith's book works precisely because it is not ironic at all. He stays totally faithful to Austen's style and feeling, and the juxtaposition of the zombie apocalypse mixed with the stolid propriety of pre-Victorian England is what makes it funny and intriguing at the same time. Conjuring images of young, Victorian women who are deadly practioners of martial arts using those skills in the same banality of drinking tea and biscuits is absolutely hysterical and pure fun. This movie is a jumbled mass of trying to please as many audiences as possible without completely serving any of them. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is not a particularly high or difficult concept, and the writers and producers just made an incoherent botch of the whole thing. And that was disappointing because this movie had a lot of promise. It even ends on a tacked-on cliffhanger in the vain hope it will become another franchise series.
And incoherence is the watchword for this movie. There appear to be a lot of inside jokes that are obvious to people who have read Pride and Prejudice. I have never read the book and, God willing, never will. But because of my ignorance of the source material, I think I missed out on some good jokes. On the other hand, the movie had plot holes so large you could sail an aircraft carrier through them. I think it also suffers from some severe post-production cutting because some storylines inexplicably end or meander down an odd path. In the end, you really need to look at this film like a Monty Python movie. Don't try to make sense of the zaniness. Just turn your brain off and just go with it.
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