Manhattan thrown in the bin, Will Smith races in his speed car to a street corner where a deer lingers; when he is about to take a shot at it a pride of lions join the party. He looks at them and they throw a lazy glance back at him showing that they're really interested in the deer and not him. His watch beeps and he gets back into the car. This is the first scene and it wonderfully spreads the carpet for the audience - so many questions here, but as the movie progresses with answers only dissatisfaction persists. The director seems to be in love with the process of film-making but not the film thereby resulting in many shots that stand well in memory but the movie as a whole remains a chopped, illogical construction.
After prolific usage of a medicine touted as a cancer cure, the world realizes the enormous outbreak of a virus - which wipes a very big chunk of the living population and altering the physiology of a good percentage of the remaining population. Robert Neville (Will Smith), a military scientist by profession is one of few left unharmed and having lost his family is naturally inclined to synthesize a cure to the living zombies. He has a mini test lab in his basement where experiments with rats and later a living-dead. The premise is very science-fictional, not my area of interest, but the treatment of it wanders liberally into a lot of religion and sentiment that makes it all the more bad.
Will Smith, like Tom Hanks of Cast Away, single handedly pulls off this project. He has matured into such a fine actor that I almost didn't notice the movies many flaws in the scenes he were, which is almost every scene. There are few scenes that work really well in a Hollywoodish way - Robert killing his good friend and the monsters replaying his technique to bait. But the climax is so cheesy to the point of shouting at the screen "oh no". I haven't read the novel upon which the movie is based, but if this is a faithful adaptation I wonder why had this book been adapted twice before. One notable achievement is in the visual department - either it is very good set decoration or very good animation and they are captivating. But otherwise, this is a forgettable motion picture.
After prolific usage of a medicine touted as a cancer cure, the world realizes the enormous outbreak of a virus - which wipes a very big chunk of the living population and altering the physiology of a good percentage of the remaining population. Robert Neville (Will Smith), a military scientist by profession is one of few left unharmed and having lost his family is naturally inclined to synthesize a cure to the living zombies. He has a mini test lab in his basement where experiments with rats and later a living-dead. The premise is very science-fictional, not my area of interest, but the treatment of it wanders liberally into a lot of religion and sentiment that makes it all the more bad.
Will Smith, like Tom Hanks of Cast Away, single handedly pulls off this project. He has matured into such a fine actor that I almost didn't notice the movies many flaws in the scenes he were, which is almost every scene. There are few scenes that work really well in a Hollywoodish way - Robert killing his good friend and the monsters replaying his technique to bait. But the climax is so cheesy to the point of shouting at the screen "oh no". I haven't read the novel upon which the movie is based, but if this is a faithful adaptation I wonder why had this book been adapted twice before. One notable achievement is in the visual department - either it is very good set decoration or very good animation and they are captivating. But otherwise, this is a forgettable motion picture.
Labels: I am Legend, Will Smith
"The director seems to be in love with the process of film-making but not the film thereby resulting in many shots that stand well in memory but the movie as a whole remains a chopped, illogical construction."
-- I am reminded of David Lynch.