DVD : I Am Legend [2007]

Rating: - What a wasted oppertunity.
Think any other zombie type movie except all the zombies are computer CGI special effects. That's it ! Seriously. what a dissapointment. Fabulous actor, loads of budget for special effects and CGI and yet an incredibly weak and feeble story line. SPOILER COMING : In a nutshell, Almost everyone is dead except for Will Smith who is a doctor and searches for a 'Zombie Cure' Finds one, and with his ultimate sacrifice gives the cure to a woman he just met to take to other survivors to save the day. End of Movie. ONLY buy this film for Will Smith or for CGI effects. Guaranteed you'll only watch this once.

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Rating: - This movie misses the point......
This movie cannot decide whether to be a survival film or a zombie b-movie slasher flick. It starts promisingly, but ends just as things start to become interesting.
From the begining, you must use all your imaginative powers in order to believe that "Will Smith" is a high ranking army officer, the greatest scientific mind of the time and also has a Men`s Health Cover model body. No movie to my knowledge has asked for so much from its audience.
If you have read the book, then you will understand the point of the title :"I am Legend" and it`s significance. This movie fails miserably to address its source material, and instead opts for the hollywood ending that will allow the spawning of dire, staright-to-DVD sequels.
Watch the far superior 28 Days later and 28 Weeks later.

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Rating: - The story of one man and his Dog (and lots of special effects).
First of all I'll have to say that I am a big fan of the original novel, but I know that films rarely reflect the book - so I won't hold that against the feature, it's just one of those things, afterall - this is the third film to be based on the book, and each one has taken it's own direction.

The opening scenes of the film left me in dismay. It looked as though this was going to be a flash Hollywood flick with sports cars and the obligatory Hollywood hunk rather than an exploration of what it is to be human.

Thankfully though, the film quickly developed and the relationship between Robert Neville (Will Smith) and his dog Sam (Abbey the Alsatian!) is well managed to get some banter into the film. This interaction allows for a bit of humour, and more importantly - an injection of humanity into the story.

The first half of the film is hauntingly beautiful. The empty New York city is eery, but never feels as on-edge as the considerably lower budget 28 Days Later. Both films deal with a "last man alive" concept at the start, but I Am Legend feels a bit too slick. I think much of this comes from the over reliance on CGI.

When we eventually see the monsters of the film, the virus infected humans - there's a feeling of let down after a fantastically stomach-tensing moment. They are too implausible. The CGI makes them seem almost cartoony, you can tell that they aren't real and so any threat they are meant to pose seems dampened. This is a shame, and although I hate to draw another comparison with 28 Days Later - the virus victims in `Days' were scary because they were realistic, you could see the lost humanity behind the monster.

The film does contain some genuinely emotive scenes. We see Neville scavenging for food in houses, this allows us to see abandoned homes. The two most poignant scenes involve him looking into a childrens room and seeing a cot, the other is handled via a flashback when a mother is hysterical whilst desperately asking the authorities to take her little girl away to safety. The interaction with shop dummies highlight Neville's loneliness and longing for the normality of life before the virus took hold.

In a nutshell: I would give this 3.5 stars, but the Amazon rating system doesn't allow this. This is a good film which could have been a great film. The desire to produce a film which questions the spirit of humanity conflicts with the Hollywood need to produce a polished, sexy, pristine flick to bring in the crowds who want to see action. This means we get sporty cars, obvious CGI, and the obligatory Will Smith pumping iron scene. The result is a film which fails to introduce concepts which are key to the books popularity; we are never left asking who the real monsters are. In the book the "I Am Legend" title comes from the fact that the vampires consider Neville a legendary murderer - the last member of an old society. The explanation given in the final moment of this film is far more `Hollywood'.

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Rating: - Not the book but its not meant to be...
The movie isn't the best of the year but it certainly is up there. The movie revolves around a single man's stuggle to stay alive and create a cure for a virus that wiped out most of the planet and turned basically everyone else into superhuman-like creatures that are close to vampires.

The first half starts well, and it is suspenseful, especially when Will Smith ventures into a totally dark building in search of his dog. You are confused at first about what is happening because there is no explaination on why the city is deserted but that is all sorted out later.

The second half moves away from the suspense as the creatures appear alot more frequently, but there is a very sad point in the second half which really helps the story along. The introduction of other survivors really didn't bring much to the story though but was useful in how the story finished off. The best section of him meeting the survivors was how awkward it was for him to meet them because of how unused to talking to people he was. I fully recommend this movie for all fans of action, or horror genres as it is a great combination of the two.

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Rating: - By no means Legendary, but Will Smith makes it worth your time.
Having never read the novel or seen the other I Am Legend adaptations (1964's The Last Man on Earth & 1971's The Omega Man with Charlton Heston), I am judging purely on Lawrence's latest version.

Smith as usual is very good and as watchable as ever in his role as lonely survivor Neville. With only a canine and various mannequins for company, he manages the role really well and carries the film easily. The first 40 minutes are basically a one man show and an acting masterclass from Smith's point of view. Having a few serious roles under his belt and two Oscar noms (Ali and more recently The Pursuit of Happyness) you can see Smith is now very comfortable in these roles and has somewhat distanced himself from comedy.

In the build up to Legend, you have to say the campaign for the film was excellent. Trailers, posters and early buzz were all really positive, huge $150 million budget, chilling images and concept art of a deserted New York grabbed attention from fans as well, not to mention Will Smith's box office appeal. The question is that does the film live up to all the hype? I would say yes, it does... just.

My main gripe with the film is with the infected, vampire-like creatures known as the "Dark Seekers", using all CGI for them was definitely a mistake. They just move too fast and don't look real at all, they reminded me of something out of a computer game. Lawrence's inexperience comes through in this aspect and you can't help but think how better handled the infectants were in Danny Boyle's similar but superior 28 Days Later.

Although in saying that, Lawrence directs Smith very well through the day and when it's just him and the dog, they are easily the best parts of the film. You have to remember that this is only Constantine director Francis Lawrence's second film, and you have to say he does a pretty good job with keeping up the tension and generally keeping the audiences engaged.

A word must also go the New York setting. Elements like deserted buildings and grass growing through the streets are very well done. The special effects here are brilliant. You sometimes have trouble figuring out which parts of the city they really cleared for shooting, and which parts are CGI.

To sum up Legend, I think it's definitely worth checking out on DVD. If you can forgive the woeful misjudgement of the Dark Seekers I think you will enjoy it. It's likely you will because they are merely a distraction and it's Will Smith's excellent, affecting performance that will be your main afterthought after seeing this movie. Perhaps He Is Legend after all.