DVD : I Am Legend [2007]

Rating: - Average film made even worse by appalling special effects.

I am legend has got the worst special effects seen in a big budget film for years. Considering how long it was in development it really is shocking how bad they are.

The film starts out promisingly, building a genuinely unsettling atmosphere. Will Smith is his usual brilliant self and proves once more what an outstanding talent he is. It's when the film gets darker that things go wrong. Because the effects are so bad it's impossible to take the film seriously. I am not joking when I say that there have been special effects in the latest series of Doctor Who which wipe the floor with anything seen here.

The film never recovers and all the work done in the opening third is wasted. Without Will Smith as the star, this film would have bombed at the box office. In the end it did very well, but don't let that disguise the fact that this is a very average film only just held together by a world class actor.

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Rating: - Great Action flick
I was really unsure of what to expect from this - a gory zombie/vampire film, or more of a drama about a man surviving on his own. It has both.

There IS a lot of action in this film and as always some brilliant acting from Will Smith (including the smart allec remarks he usually makes, which added a bit of humour to the very intense film).

The film starts off after the disease has already spread and has divided man from vampire-like-zombie-things. You then follow Robert Neville (Will Smith) and his beloved doggy Sam, through a daily routine of their lives in a deserted world. Within this daily routine you see flash backs of when it all started and the story of him and his family just before the disease started to spread.

After all this introduction the plot kicks in, without wanting to ruin it for anyone I'll keep this breif. There are some very very scarey scenes of him being faced with these creatures, a lot of action as already mentioned of him escaping and surviving, and also some extremely sad scenes of people who he has lost, or will lose later on in the film.

It seems this film has everything, however what lets this film down is the special effects! I imagined that the creatures would look less so-obviously computer animated and was a little dissappointed at the special effects in this. Hense the 1 star missing on my rating.

Would recommend this film though as it was very enjoyable to watch and apart from the special effects had eveything going for it.

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Rating: - not as action packed as the ads made out
The ads for this made it seem really action packed and non stop. The film was good but a bit on the slow side. If you're expecting action you'll be disappointed, but it is worth watching. Although I wouldn't rush out to buy it.

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Rating: - I'm sorry, I just didn't care for it
Our lad Will plays a military hero, a devoted family man, dog lover - and to top it all - one of the world's top virologists.

Single handily he takes on marauds of photophobic, blood-sucking zombies who have taken over a deserted Manhattan. There's lots of awe-inspiring SFX to wile away the time.

Oddly enough, the head zombie reminds of me of a fella I once met on the No. 19 bus in London from Sloane Square to Finsbury Park Station.

Small world isn't it?

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Rating: - I am a Leg End
I wholeheartedly agree with Amazon's opening review of this movie. For the first hour or so this is epic, wonderful, suspenseful stuff. Will Smith (always worth watching) is gripping as the sole survivor of a plague ravaged world. His loneliness is portrayed so clearly and cleverly, i.e. watching old recordings of news programmes just for some background noise, and the underlying knowledge that there is something nasty out there in the dark adds to a growing feeling of unease.
And then it all sort of falls apart in the second half. Now I am a big fan of Bob Marley but even I can see that good songwriter and natty dread wearer that he was, his songs can't actually help a virologist cure a plague. The CGI zombies are on the whole laughable and look as though they have been hacked together on a home computer.
So a triumph up to a point, but I suggest you turn off the DVD when you reach that point. The "animated comics" that come as extras on this DVD are bizarre and, to be frank, a bit pants.