14 December 2007

My Review: I Am Legend

"Here come this Negro saving the world again." - Tavis Smiley




Smart and downbeat rarely plays mainstream (just look at the fast disappearance of Frank Darabont’s The Mist), but if you’re up for melancholy and contemplation in an action-thriller; then it just doesn’t get much better than I Am Legend. - CinemaBlend
Well, this will not be so much a review as a random collection of thoughts...

Even for the most anti-social of us (like myself), extreme, extended, complete, involuntary solitude can wear away at your sanity. Solitary confinement is a punishment in prisons. Add to that the fact that you have created the situation yourself, with no likely end, and the all-consuming guilt of having personally decimated 99% of the world population, and even the strongest man is headed for a breakdown.



SPOILERS


It was kinda a let-down that the "Dark Seekers" were so CGI that they looked supernatural. They didn't move naturally, and when they yelled, their faces seemed to stretch. Eric D. Snider got it right when he said they looked like they were in a video game. The first glimpse was creepy - what the heck were they doing in that huddle?

FANGORIA has some photos of what the Dark Seekers were originally supposed to look like before they decided to go the CGI route. I think they look super cool.

Roger Ebert: The situation raises questions of logic. If Neville firmly believes he is the last healthy man alive, who is the vaccine for? Only himself, I guess.
Well, ...um, uh.. hmmm.

Roger Ebert: But we have seen every bridge into Manhattan blown up as part of a quarantine of the island, so how did they get there? Boat? Why go to the risk?
Anna said she had come by boat from some evacuation site in Puerto Rico or some-such, didn't she?

MUSIC

Bob Marley - Three Little Birds

I predict Bob Marley will be the #1 download on iTunes!


Watch the first five minutes. Compare to the video clip from Vanilla Sky below.


Elements of Vanilla Sky (a deserted Manhattan and a hot little mamacita), Night of the Comet, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Cast Away, 28 Days/Weeks Later...


5 comments:

Corey said...

to answer ebert...

- i'm not convinced he was looking just for a vaccine -- its clear he wants to find a way to cure those already infected as well.

- obviously he thought (or at least hoped) other people remained or he wouldn't keep showing up at docks every day in case any one showed. what he didn't believe was that the safe haven in vermont had actually worked as intended.

i was very disappointed in the creatures overall, but otherwise this movie rocked. of course, i'm a dog person... so i'm kind of biased towards end-of-the-world-but-at -least-i-still-have-my-dog stories.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting the video. I'd forgotten how creepy the Vanilla Sky is. And you've convinced me that I should brave the cold and snow this weekend and go see I An Legend.

Unknown said...

Like Corey said, the vaccine was as much a treatment for those already infected as it was a preventative measure for those who were still healthy.

Some movies grow on you as you think about them. I love Tears of the black Tiger more and more every time I think about it or see it. But, in this case, the more I think about I Am Legend, the more disappointed I become. It's had the opposite effect. The plot holes become a bit more evident the more you reflect on what happened. Initially, I really liked it, a couple days later, I'm not sure why I liked it so much.

Anonymous said...

This movie did have some of the worst computer graphics I've seen in awhile (besides the empty city stuff). It's beyond me why they didn't just use prosthetic make-up for the creatures. Ahhhh well....

Unknown said...

They tried. Initially, the infected were all actors in makeup and prosthetics. However, the human actors weren't able to do the movements, capture the speed, breathe, etc the way the film makers wanted, thus the decision to go CG.

Of course, the downside to CG characters is that it's still very hard to get a human-like CG character to look...well, human. It's the uncanny valley effect. We look at it and the movement or the look is just not quite right. It's close, but not there and our mind can't help but notice the difference. The mind becomes confused and disgusted. It's easier for the mind to accept a cartoon with grossly distorted features than it is a CG representation that's just a tad bit off.