December 17, 2007

I Am Legend

I saw this on Sunday night. It wasn't bad. I didn't enjoy the 2nd half as much as the 1st, but I was never bored. Will Smith's performance was actually solid and he holds your attention, especially considering that the 1st half of the movie involves very little action or dialogue.

I did not particularly like the fact that they removed the vampires from the novel and replaced them with infected humans. Maybe it is a more plausible take on the novel, but dammit, I like vampires and I was looking forward to vampires!! Seems like this "rage virus" is the new trend to eliminate the supernatural element in horror movies. First zombies, now vampires. If the new Wolfman movie tries to explain lycanthropy through science, I am not watching it!!! Just leave it supernatural and unexplainable!

My other problem with the movie was its heavy reliance on CG. If you're making a movie about an abandoned NY City, granted, you're going to have to use computer trickery to get that across. But I felt like the director leaned on it too much. The scene involving the lion and the deer seemed unnecessary. I hate CG animals. They never look convincing. Peter managed to nail it with King Kong and the lion in Narnia looked damn good, but these CG lions were only slightly better than the atrocious CG wolves in The Day After Tomorrow. Why couldn't they just use a real lion for the close ups? C'mon, stop relying on CG for everything!

Same goes for the vampir . . . uh, I mean infected humans. Or Dark Seekers as I believe they were referred to. Why were they all CG as well? For wide shots of them running around at superhuman speeds I can understand, but for facial close-ups why not go the make-up route? I'm a firm believer that anything that can be done with practical effects should be done so. The creatures in The Decent looked great and they were far scarier than these CG creations. I just can't get scared by CG. Not yet. It still has a way to go.

These issues aside, the movie was still entertaining. It might not have lived up to what I was expecting, but I'm not screaming for my $9 back. I'd watch it again on Bluray one day.

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