*** 1/2 (3 and 1/2 stars)I Am Legend (2007)
Genre: Sci-Fi/Thriller
101 minutes - PG13 rating
Director: Francis Lawrence
Starring: Will Smith, Alice Braga, Dash Mihok
Brief Plot: Based loosely on the 1954 novel by Richard Matheson. A human created virus goes wrong and infects the human race turning them into zombie-like animals. Scientist Robert Neville is the only human survivor in New York City. As he struggles day-by-day to survive he also experiments hoping to discover a cure.
Best Audience: This movie should be appreciated by lovers of zombie-esque films or anyone who likes post-apocalypse type storylines. Avoid if you hate scary movies.
My Review: I am no fan of vampire movies and I Am Legend is not one, but it seemed awfully close. While the movie may serve to provoke thought about mass viral infection, it leaves little room for much else to glean from the hour and forty minutes of screen time, and that left me a little empty. It is entertaining, a bit scary, and cool to look at. The visuals in the film were quite brilliant, Director of Photography Andrew Lesnie and the hard work of the digital effects team is to credit for that. Additionally Will Smith is very satisfying as Robert Neville. He was good at showing the emotions and sanity of his character, which to me was more interesting than the action scenes with the infected "zombies". The movie was fairly unique, even for it's genre, and looked good while maintaining high production value. Because of this it definitely deserves 3 and 1/2 stars but I didn't think it was quite good enough for 4. Above average but not something I'll be raving about tomorrow. Also, I didn't care for the alternate ending, it didn't add up for me.
2 comments:
Don't forget to mention the lame ending. Were you able to watch the alternate ending on the DVD? I kind of wanted to see what could have been the ending since it certainly could not have been much worse than the version that hit the screens. This is some of Will Smith's best; he gets better with every performance. The vast empty cityscapes were awesome and I liked the whole concept. The movie just went downhill fast when the first infected person graced the screen. They did a terrible job with the rubbery unhuman like infected people. I love zombie flicks though, so maybe that was the problem. My hats off to Will Smith though.
yeah Will had a great performance, which makes it hard to rate. The alternate ending is actually worse I think! I know that could be hard... while the ending to this is not very pleasing, it did at least make sense. But yeah, dissatisfying. I hope Hancock is not a letdown. It seems too... cliche? And Will Smith has great potential these days.
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