Movie vs. Book - Warm Bodies

When I saw the previews for the Warm Bodies movie, I really wanted to see it.  It just looked quirky and fun.  Zombie romantic comedy?  What a cool idea!  Of course, I had to read the book first, because that's just how I roll.

Book review:  4/5 - It's basically Romeo and Juliet, but Romeo happens to be a zombie.  (I mean, the main characters are R and Julie, so yeah). 

I really enjoyed the beginning.  It was funny and endearing (and sort of horrifying at times).   The author does a great job of making the main character sweet even though he's a zombie.  His instinct is to kill/eat humans, but he's sort of fighting against that.  Then he meets the girl and he really starts to change.  Their interactions were wonderfully written.  I just loved the whole part where he is trying to explain things, and she's confused and scared, but he wants to protect her, and act normal.  The second half of the book gets a little bit less awesome as they deal with their new human/zombie friendship/romance, and how that works in the context of everything else.  I still liked it, but just not quite as much as the first half.  I won't spoil the ending,but I thought it was clever and made sense.

Movie review:  4/5 - different, but still good

For the most part, I thought the movie was pretty true to the book.  There were little differences (skip these if you don't want spoilers): 

• R's outfit - in the book, he wears a suit, and assumes he was a businessman before he died.  In the movie, he's just wearing a hoodie and jeans.  Not a huge difference, but I thought it was a weird thing to change.  Were they trying to make him seem younger? 
• R's wife and kids in the zombie camp - I'm glad they cut this.  In the book, it was kind of weird, but easy enough to explain in a couple sentences.  It would have been too awkward in the movie.  
• Julie's dinner - one of my favorite parts of the book, but they mostly cut it from the movie.  After he takes her back to his 'home', she is hungry, and he tries to find her food.  It was sweet and funny, so I wish the movie had kept it.  There was a shortened version, but it was very straightforward, without the awkward moments.

...But those differences weren't enough to change the main point of the story.   Some other things were bigger and changed the story a bit.  I won't list all of them, but the BIG one is the ending.  Spoilers:  In the book, R spends more time in the human safe zone and accidentally kills someone, Julie's dad refuses to believe R is changing, and actually gets killed at the end.  The movie takes a lighter tone, as Julie's dad seems to soften to the idea of R changing.  I know it is ridiculous to say about a zombie rom-com, but the movie ending just didn't seem as believable!   

So I am happy to say that I can enjoy both a movie and a book, despite their differences!  I was beginning to think I should just stop seeing movies based on books.

Have you seen or read Warm Bodies?  What did you think?