Movie Review: I am Legend

Hey all,

I managed to catch I Am Legend over the weekend and I really came to realize two things. One, that it has been a long while since I caught a huge blockbuster on opening night. That place was so place was so packed that we had to trade our tickets in for a later showing just to get seats that allowed us to see the screen! The Second thing I learned is that everyone is probably right about me, I'm a movie Grinch because I didn't like it.

As I get older, there are simply less and less movies I find myself enjoying, whether that is a result of age and not understanding current movie going trends, or having a better understanding of movies having seen so many, or simply appreciating the quality films that came before and current films not living up to the hype. It saddens me because I love going to the movies, the theatre experience is great. I just seem to find so many movies lacking in depth and substance. I know there are quality blockbusters that can be made, I've seen them! Unfortunately, I am Legend is not one of them.

Will Smith plays a military scientist, the last man on earth, living at the ground zero point of a disease that turned the worlds population into sort of zombie vampires. They can only come out at night and need blood to survive. He lives in a fortified home in New York City, stocked with supplies and a laboratory where he continues his experiments in curing the disease. He and his only companion, a German Shepard, prowl the city by day looking for supplies and hunting game. He eventually comes into contact with another human after three years of being alone and trues ti save them from the nocturnal infected.

I think Legend comes out strong with top notch effects and story telling, the way that New York looks, abandoned and desolate with weeds overgrowing is awesome. Smith also does a pretty good job of keeping you interested in his character as the only character in the movie for the first hour or so. What I didn't like was the plotting of the film, they start out good, but they don't really amp up any action or drama. From the previews I thought I would get Will battling more creatures, but that doesn't really happen until the end. Overall I thought the pacing and plotting were kind of vanilla. The worst part of the movie is the creatures themselves. They are animated badly, looking like they belong more on the sci-fi channels movie of the week than a multi-million dollar budget film.

One other thing that I didn't like were the creatures behaviors. All through the movie Smith keeps talking about how the monsters are mindless with no social patterns or anything, just base instinct. Yet in the movie one monster repeatedly demonstrates behavior that proves against this. Like when Will gets stuck in a trap just like the ones he uses to catch infected in for his testing. Did he get stuck in a trap he made? Or are the infected smarter than we are lead to believe? They never really answer that.

All in all I wouldn't say I am Legend was bad, just kind of a generic blockbuster movie. Will Smith isn't bad, I simply wanted a bit for flash in the film. A wow moment where you can get excited for the movies hero. Instead you get a vanilla movie with an unsatisfying ending. There are worse ways to spend 2 hours, but I would hold out for a rental. Thanks for reading.


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Gerrad!