I Am LegendPG-13
Running time: 101 minutes
USA
Sometimes I baffle myself...especially when I get the urge to watch a movie that I know will only disappoint me in the end. Also, I am bewildered by my man crush on Will Smith because he really hasn't done many films that I have cared for. However, there's just something about him that I can't put my finger on that makes me love that guy! Anyway...I digress. I added this to my queue a while back just for fun and then totally forgot about it. Lo and behold, it showed up at my door yesterday so I figured I'd give it a quick viewing.
I'll keep the synopsis and commentary brief because I figure most of the world has already seen it. Smith's character is the only apparent survivor from a cancer cure gone awry. Most of the visually stunning scenes are of him and his dog driving through the barren streets of New York, hunting or trying to capture the "creatures" that survive in the darkness.
I was pretty entertained for the first half of the movie. Francis Lawrence uses dreams/flashbacks to give enough back story to make you care about Smith's character. Plus, as I mentioned earlier, the backdrops of a post-apocalyptic NYC are beautiful. My brain started to shut down entirely, however, when the infected humans started to play a bigger role. Apparently they either hired completely different companies to do the cityscapes and the zombie-types or they just got lazy. The CGI goes from believable to comical in a span of about 30 seconds right around the half way point of the film. I started wondering if I was watching two different movies...the latter of which was getting under my skin. The worst part being the lack of credibility destroyed any tension that had been built up to that point...which was a shame 'cause the first half had me curious. Oh well...I guess I had little to no hope that the movie was going to be good so I wasn't all the disappointed...just a little irked? Miffed, maybe? Kerfuffled? Nope...irked it is.It's a popcorn eater...if you're gonna see it just sip a horse tranquilizer or something equivalent and let your mind fall asleep for a while. You'll enjoy it just fine.
3 comments:
our friends gave us a pirated copy of this. didn't watch it. then we got it on netflix. didn't watch it. now i read your review. so i'll never watch it. not that i was trying very hard to in the first place. thanks for saving me from wasting my very precious free-time.
I have to say that I did enjoy the film more than I expected to. I didn't know much about the plot, but if you throw in a loyal, well-trained, sweet German shepherd...well, I'm sold. Having said that, you now know where I cried.
I actually liked I Am Legend, with a caveat- I would have enjoyed much more the scene originally planned for as an ending sequence for the finale (the graphics for the night walkers didn't bother me as much as the lack of development). They spent so much time developing the leader of the night walkers, and had an opportunity to not just use them as the typical monster-movie zombie, bent on eating any protagonist.
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