Morgan Bell
Kynaston
Jason King
Mike Cullen
REVIEW: I Am Legend
March 7th 2008 08:31
Directed: Francis Lawrence (Constantine)
Written: Mark Protosevich (Poseidon, The Cell) , Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind, A Time To Kill), from the novel by Richard Matheson (Stir of Echoes, What Dreams May Come)
Starring: Will Smith (The Pursuit Of Happyness, Hitch, Ali, I Robot)
Fantastic concept, average execution. An immunization against cancer has diabolical consequences when it mutates and kills off the majority of the population and transforms the small remainder into aggressive zombies. Robert Neville (Smith) is the last man left living in New York City, he is immune to the zombie virus and is a biological scientist searching for a cure. His loneliness and isolation is driving him slowly mad, much like Tom Hanks in "Castaway", but instead of Wilson the volleyball Neville has his trusty dog and a secure medical laboratory in the basement of his house. The zombies only roam at night as they decay in sunlight, so Neville spends his days driving around setting traps to capture zombies to test potential antidotes on them in his lab. This film could have been smart sci-fi about human behaviour but it instead opts for the cheap thrills and spills of computer graphics, stunts and explosions. This is a slick big budget horror film with a popular leading man. There is some fantastic suspense early on wondering what is lurking in dark rooms and around dark corners, its genuinely terrifying . . . a scene where a mannequin appears to have moved on its own . . . the paranoia of losing your grip on reality . . . but in the end I felt like I was watching "Die Hard" when I wished I was watching "The Stand". Similar concept done so much more interestingly in the "28 Days Later" film series or "Serenity".
Written: Mark Protosevich (Poseidon, The Cell) , Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind, A Time To Kill), from the novel by Richard Matheson (Stir of Echoes, What Dreams May Come)
Starring: Will Smith (The Pursuit Of Happyness, Hitch, Ali, I Robot)
Fantastic concept, average execution. An immunization against cancer has diabolical consequences when it mutates and kills off the majority of the population and transforms the small remainder into aggressive zombies. Robert Neville (Smith) is the last man left living in New York City, he is immune to the zombie virus and is a biological scientist searching for a cure. His loneliness and isolation is driving him slowly mad, much like Tom Hanks in "Castaway", but instead of Wilson the volleyball Neville has his trusty dog and a secure medical laboratory in the basement of his house. The zombies only roam at night as they decay in sunlight, so Neville spends his days driving around setting traps to capture zombies to test potential antidotes on them in his lab. This film could have been smart sci-fi about human behaviour but it instead opts for the cheap thrills and spills of computer graphics, stunts and explosions. This is a slick big budget horror film with a popular leading man. There is some fantastic suspense early on wondering what is lurking in dark rooms and around dark corners, its genuinely terrifying . . . a scene where a mannequin appears to have moved on its own . . . the paranoia of losing your grip on reality . . . but in the end I felt like I was watching "Die Hard" when I wished I was watching "The Stand". Similar concept done so much more interestingly in the "28 Days Later" film series or "Serenity".
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Comment by Cibbuano
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The terrible CGI monsters? The plot with the ludicrious jumps in logic?
The cheesy, damning ending?
Ach!
It's all so much worse because the novel is a brilliant work of fiction, and the movie took only the name. If you read the book, I think you'll be shocked at how much meat was ignored...