Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Movie Review

First of all, I have to mention that I'm a huge fan of the original Pride and Prejudice novel by Jane Austen. I previously read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith and really disliked it. However, watching the trailer of the movie adaptation got me interested in the film in the end. Unfortunately, I shouldn't have wasted my time after all, because the movie was horrible as well.

One of the first things that bothered me was the fact that the movie draws heavily on the 2005 Pride and Prejudice adaptation by Joe Wright, at times, especially in how some scenes were shot. For example, Mr Collins' proposal to Lizzie is filmed almost exactly the same, as is Elizabeth's argument with both parents afterwards and some shots of the ball at Netherfield are too alike to the 2005 adaptation as well. Which is disappointing to say the least, you would expect a new adaptation to differ from the previous ones, you want them to add something new. Of course, the zombies are new, but even if you consider this as a zombie movie alone, it is also severely lacking. After The Walking Dead, zombie movies don't have an excuse to be so bad. Just look at Shaun of the Dead, this movie is excellent, even with a limited budget!

In addition, this film also didn't mind copying the lake scene from the BBC series with Colin Firth, which is of course not in the novel. I don't appreciate adaptations copying this scene, especially because it wasn't in the book. To me, it doesn't add anything of value to an adaptation.

Then there are the characters, I didn't like this portrayal of Mr. Darcy at all. From the moment the audience is introduced to him, I couldn't help laughing at how ridiculous it was. For one, the actor looks too young to play Mr. Darcy and to be honest, his voice made me sputter in laughter, and not in a good way. It was ridiculous. Mr. Wickham suddenly started to show up everywhere, which was probably what annoyed me the most! He shouldn't be at the Netherfield ball, nor at Rosings. At all! 
The only character I suddenly liked more than I ever had before, was surprisingly Mr. Collins. Math Smith does an amazing job! It's by far the most entertaining portrayal of Mr. Collins I've ever seen!

Another thing I found quite strange is the fact that Elizabeth and Darcy's dance at Netherfield wasn't shown at all! It's one of my favourite scenes in every adaptation and the fact that it didn't even make it into this movie shows that the selection of original scenes could have been so much better.

Furthermore, the original Pride and Prejudice lines delivered in this movie felt too rehearsed and not believable at all ,it's like the actors didn't understand what they were saying. The exception being Mr. Collins once more.

This movie is in one word ridiculous (and not in a good way) and I advise you to stay as far away from it as possible!