I don't usually jump in here and review movies because Mark's so good at doing it, I worry that I won't measure up. Oh well, can't live in fear. Or even if you do, can't go around being a big giant wuss.
See what I'm talking about? This review has gotten off on the totally wrong foot.
Anyways, we saw Will Smith's latest tonite, and I'm going to say up front I'm just giving it 2.5 gliomas. I give maximum gliomage to special effects. Futuristic wild New York -- with deer hopping around between abandoned cars -- was just awesome.
Don't want to give anything away, so I'll keep it sketchy -- I really liked the premise that gets you to the crazy zombie filled world devoid of anyone but Will Smith. I liked the quiet first third of the film, which was reminiscent of the Tom Hanks talking to the volleyball section of Castaway.
I can only give the movie 2.5 Glis because it gets way too cheesy in toward the end. I'm reading over other reviews on this movie now -- which is the third remake of the book of the same name -- and it looks like the cheeseball ending was not in the original. Too bad they schmaltzed up what looks like a much better story line in the original.
Here's an interesting post from BeyondHollywood on the ending:
"Something is wrong with the ending of Will Smith’s upcoming “I am Legend”, the latest movie adaptation of Richard Matheson’s novel of the same name. Or at least, something is “wrong” according to the studio that produced the movie, because they have just finished reshoots on the film. Of course, no one knows if the reshoots had anything to do with the ending at all, but ... it probably does. It’s widely known, ... that the 2007 version of “I am Legend” is barely faithful to Matheson’s book, so one would expect the ending would also be different. The book’s ending was very, shall we say, non-audience friendly, and what kind of a Big Budget Will Smith movie would this be if the ending was non-audience friendly?"
This movie definitely has the feeling of a film that was mucked up because the test audience didn't like the depressing ending. Too bad dudes -- should have trusted the original Sci Fi tale ...
Okay Mark. Add some poetry and some smart stuff.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
I Am Legend
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3 comments:
Girl, I am glad you are not a reviewing wuss! We all do pale in the bright light of Mark's film review stylings. Still, we have to step up to the plate and swing.
Thinking in my most high minded critique commenting way, I say: Remember Omega Man? I was thinking how Will is so very much hotter than Heston ... but then I thought about Judah Ben Hur ... minus the NRA ... oh the timeless joys of the cinema ...
Apparently vincent price played the lead in the original I am legend, before Omega man. Makes me want to see both of them, to compare
I think this was an excellent review, baby. The only part I disagree with is your statement near the top that you got off on the wrong foot with the opening digression about living in fear.
Actually, that's the perfect beginning, don't you think, since it's really the central idea of the movie?
I agree that the first third or so of the movie was brilliant -- it makes me want to read that book from this year, "The World Without Us," about what would happen to the landscape if humans disappeared -- and that it cheesed out with those zombie characters. But I still thought it was entertaining in a Will Smith popcorn-movie way.
I give it 3 gliomas.
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