blogging about recent movies watched, tv soaps and other random films
I am Legend
Saturday, January 12, 2008
TITLE: I am Legend
DIRECTOR: Francis Lawrence
WRITERS: Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman
TAGLINE: "The last man on earth is not alone."
CAST: Will Smith
I had quite a good time watching this one. But there should have been so much more, so much more to do to make it really really good. The setting is good already, the alien-looking humans are almost real already, and the storyline is more than catchy enough. The execution of most scenes, however, is half-baked. You know that feeling when you still want to eat more, but there’s no more? Exactly how this story of a lone man trying to survive in a city co-inhabited by thousands of human monsters is told.
Year 2012 in New York City, military scientist Robert Neville (Will Smith) is the only survivor left (apart from his dog, Sam) after a deadly plague hit the city 3 years ago. The plague, caused by a biochemical disease created by scientists to supposedly cure cancer, had turned cancer patients into monsters. Monsters that eat humans. Very good start, however, it is just it.
There is not a single scene that shows how the other survivors (because it is just impossible to leave just one human being standing…just give me at least two, will you!), during the last 3 years since the plague struck, were attacked by these monsters. Can you imagine the thrill of these people running for their lives? I’ve seen a lot of thriller movies, and I believe scenes like that are what the thriller fans love to see. So, strike one. Okay, there’s a scene like that: Neville being attacked by these blood-thirsty creatures. It’s when he unwittingly gets himself almost trapped in an abandoned building filled with zombies. Good thing he is the hero, the legend in this movie, we know he’s not gonna die, so we just watch him run for his life, kick a butt or two here and there, fire shots to the villains, and whew! done. But in most cases, we forget that about the hero thing. So it’s really cool screaming and screaming all the way till throat hurts. I mean, that’s what we all love, right? There should have been several of that, you know…heart-thumping scenes and more screaming in our part. Yes, there’s one more too, that is when it is almost nighttime (fyi, the monsters here only go out during the night) but our guy is still in the street when he should have been inside his house where all entrances and exits are heavily padlocked. The thrill of seeing the daylight slowly fading while he is crawling his way to his truck being wounded in one thigh (after falling in a trap set by the zombies…so boohoo to the zombies who can think—strike two!) , and by now you can imagine the audience’s collective screams. But in my seat, I was like, come on, I know you will stand when the damn monsters are already on you, SO WHY DON’T YOU STAND UP RIGHT NOW AND GET YOUR ASS OFF THAT ROAD! And I was right, he really stood up just in a nick of time. It was good.
The story, if you don’t listen carefully, is hard to get. I don’t even remember hearing an explanation why those people have died altogether, all 10,009 of them, the cancer patients (or there is no explanation at all). As I know, medicines are first tested in animals before given to humans (like what Neville does in his experiments). It even takes years before they are approved for human consumption. So why are we given this type of scientific-related story that cannot even be explained by science? I should shut up. But that’s strike three there.
But hey, I said I had quite a good time watching it. And I meant it. I like Will Smith, although his body seems to grow out of shape here, I suggest he should change it (and the director should stop commercializing his body by giving more exposures to it than the zombies. lol!) And I was entertained by it. The ending, though, is not what I was hoping to see, I felt like watching Armageddon again (Bruce Willis’ throwing himself to save the world…bah). But if it is what director Francis Lawrence wants his story to end, then let’s give him that. And that grand finale too, wherein the other two survivors (yep, there’s this girl and her kiddo. and I was right.) find their way to a mountain area--where incidentally is a hive of the other survivors, and there, they congregate. So what makes Nevile a “legend” here is the dramatic side of the story: he finds the antidote for that chemical compound that turned cancer patients monsters three years ago.
Lesson learned: Forget the story, just enjoy the movie.
Labels: action, adventure, drama, horror, scifi, suspense
TITLE: I am Legend
posted by vatski at 11:02 AM