HI, I'm Steph, 20 from Warrington! I also write on the review site DooYoo under the same name :) Th...
HI, I'm Steph, 20 from Warrington! I also write on the review site DooYoo under the same name :) Thanks to everyone who rates me, especially the E's! I am very grateful for all rates! :o)
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Film Only Review
Details of I am Legend Directed By: Francis Lawrence Release Date: 26 December 2007 (UK) Genre: Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi Run Time: 101 Minutes Certification: 15 (uk) Starring: Will Smith Alice Braga Charlie Tahan
Plot: When a plague like disease hits New York City, everybody is evacuated, leaving only Robert Neville, a Government scientist who was unable to stop the virus spreading, and who stayed to try and control it at groud zero. 3 years on, and Robert is the only survivor, the virus has spread across the Nation, across the world. It's 2012, and everyday for the last 3 years he has sent radio messages out to to any other survivors to meet him in New York.
Robert though is battling against the virus ridden inhabitants of New York. As when people got the virus, they turned nasty, they turned violent and supernatural, their basic human instincts gone, but they can only come out during the dark, as light kills them.
When he gets caught up in the middle of the night, with the virus ridden monsters around him, his dog, Sam is infected, and he has to kill her. He then decides his life isn't worth living anymore, he is the only one left. That is until he is saved by Anna, a survivor who heard his radio calls, and who knows of a place where the other survivors live. Robert is apprehensive he wants to stay in New York, he wants to fight The Infected, he wants to discover a cure, something to bring the monsters back to their human state. But are
there really any survivors out there anyway? And even if there are, what kind of life will they lead in a virus ridden world.
Opinion: Sorry but to me this film is basically 28 Days Later. Come on look at the similarities: a lone survivor is left in an American City after a disease wipes out the "whole of humanity", leaving the victims angry monsters who attack any living thing, and when bitten by them, they themselves turn into these monsters who must be killed. The "lone survivor" then finds out he is no longer alone, and off they go to find the rest of the survivors which there "must be". This film follows the exact same storyline as 28 Days Later, only it's not as blood thristy.
There are too many inconsistencies in this film too, Robert has been alone in the city for 3 whole years, he is the only survivor in the world as far as he knows, yet he has no problem getting fuel for his car, which he drives around in, now I know you probably think, oh he'll just get it from the many cars which will have been abandoned, well for 1, after 3 years of driving around in a new car everyday, he'd have to have found over 1000 cars with full petrol tanks in New York city alone, but after 3 years, alot of cars won't be able to be started, they'll be dead, in need of something fixing, and as most of the cars you see parked up in the film are stuck where they are with trees growing through them, you can see he's never driven them.
Also, where does his electricity and water come from? To have electricity there must be a working power station somewhere, and to have water, there must be a water processing plant somewhere working, both of which require people to work there, whether just for maintenance or for actually working the machines to power the city. He doesn't use solar power or a tubine on his little house, so where does it come from? Yes petty little things like that, but, still inconsistencies which make a film that little less enjoyable!
Will Smith plays a good character don't get me wrong, he plays the part well, as a man who has been left on his own for 3 years with only a dog to keep him company, he is just the right amount of weird, and I think it's done well when he finally meets a survivor- unlike other films like this, Smiths character doesn't jump right in with the niceties, acting all normal. He has been alone for 3 years, with no human interaction, he hasn't spoken to another person in all that time, and the only people he has been near are the victims of the disease who all want to kill him, so he plays the part well, whether this is down to him, or the director or screen writer I do not know.
The filming of I am Legend is done quite cleverly, to me it seems as though it is filmed with a hand held camera (as Cloverfield was), again I do not know if this was done with special effects, of if it actually was filmed using a hand held, which is not common in modern films, but which has a great effect, as it gives it a kind of home movie feel, as if Robert is filming his experience.
The scenery is also excellent, watching the film you would think that the whole of New York city had been eveacuated for the filming of I am Legend, the set is very good, and very lifelike, it's hard to think that it is just a set in a studio somewhere!
But all of these good points aside, the film really isn't much to gloat about by the directors, for all the hype which the film caused, it was really nothing all that exciting. It has been done before, the storyline was just too similar to that of 28 Days Later to be enjoyable, the first half of the film is very boring, there is little dialogue (as Robert is alone in the city he has only his dog Sam and the manequins he has placed around the city to talk to), and the film is very quiet- this could have been done by the film makers to make the final part of I am Legend seem more exciting, this was a trick done by Takashi Miike with his Japanese Horror film Audition to make the audience blatently bored with the first half of the film, only to be shocked at the violence and psychopathic-ness of the final half, unluckily for him, this resulted in the biggest number of walk-outs during the film to be recorded. This could be what the film makers of I am Legend have done with this film, but as with Audition, it just made me want to turn the TV off.
This is definitely not one that I would recommend to any film fan, maybe if your a HUGE Will Smith fan you'd enjoy it, but I doubt it. If you have seen 28 Days Later, then you have seen the premis for this film, and there is no point watching this one.
I would have given this no stars if I could, but I suppose for the acting of Will Smith and the set it deserves the one star.
NB: Just as a little note to those reading this and think I am saying this film has "ripped off" the storyline from other horror films I am not. What I am saying is, the director has made the film much like these other horror films. The storyline itself comes from the book from 1954, which was written by Richard Materson. I myself have not read this book, and I would like to, as I always find the book much more enjoyable than the film, the storyline has the epic film opportunity, but it isn't pulled off. The monsters are CGI, which takes away the believeability of the film, the monsters could so easily have been played by actors in make up, which would have made it more believable and possibly likeable. I just think that the way the director has made this film, is too much like other films which have gone before it, NOT the storyline. Please keep this in mind when rating, as I think some people think I am saying that this film is a rip off version of 28 days later, where I am not. Thanks for reading.
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Production Year: 2007 - Science Fiction - Director: Francis Lawrence - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Willow Smith, Dash Mihok, Will Smith, Charlie Tahan, Salli Richardson, Alice Braga
It seems strange to find a 1954 vampire novel in Millennium's "SF Masterworks" classic ... more
reprints series. I Am Legend, though, was a trailblazing and later much imitated story that reinvented the vampire myth as SF. Without losing the horror, it presen...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
It seems strange to find a 1954 vampire novel in Millennium's "SF Masterworks" classic ... more
reprints series.I Am Legend, though, was a trailblazing and later much imitated story that reinvented the vampire myth as SF. Without losing the horror, it present...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
It seems strange to find a 1954 vampire novel in Millennium's "SF Masterworks" classic ... more
reprints series.I Am Legend, though, was a trailblazing and later much imitated story that reinvented the vampire myth as SF. Without losing the horror, it present...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
It seems strange to find a 1954 vampire novel in Millennium's "SF Masterworks" classic ... more
reprints series. I Am Legend, though, was a trailblazing and later much imitated story that reinvented the vampire myth as SF. Without losing the horror, it presen...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Advantages: Stark portrayal of the madness of loneliness and terror Disadvantages: A bit slow, fails to take the risks of not being quite so mainstream
Calypte 01.05.2008 (01.05.2008)
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Review of I Am Legend (DVD)
Sep 7th, 2009
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