Wednesday, December 19, 2007

I Am Legend

Well, I saw "I Am Legend" last night.

While it wasn't great, it also wasn't wasn't bad. In brief, here's my review, for whatever that is worth. :)

Great effects. It is worth seeing on the big screen just for the first 20+ minutes in an abandoned New York. But I thought that they didn't need to go completely CGI for the vampires/creatures/whatever you want to call them.
Makeup effects would have been fine and given them more solidity and reality.

The product placement wasn't as bad as a Michael Bay film, but it was close. Some examples were so glaring and obvious they made me laugh out loud.

The direction was very good. I'm not one for getting caught up in thrillers, you can either predict what is going to happen or you are prepared for the eventual "scare." Generally directors fall back on the pop out and scare you rather than create an atmosphere of suspense. Francis Lawrence did it right. I was on the edge of my seat in some parts, half wanting to look away and the other part wanting to see what happens.

Will Smith was very good. One caveat here, I like Will. I've always thought that he was an enjoyable actor, but through his career I've also seen a lot of growth in his range and abilities. I was really sold on his emotion for some of the scenes that could have been smarmy and dopey if done badly.

Lastly, the script. There are some glaring holes in logic. A couple of lines of dialogue made me cringe. And the story gets rushed towards the last part and then kind of just... ends.

All in all, not a bad popcorn film, but, as a friend put it, "This film will never rise above it's genre."

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