Review of I Am Legend (2007) by Mickd. — 11 Jan 2008

Worst movie I've seen this year. The quality of Smith's and Sandy's acting was made redundant in my opinion; there are so many holes in the plot it beggars belief. The zombies' depiction is mostly to blame for this because- [***SPOILER***] 1) They haven't the brains to appreciate Smith is trying to cure them, BUT they are able to capture him in an elaborate mannequin hoax/rope loop operation.

2) They are most enthusiastic in their efforts to devour Smith, but are miraculously overpowered by a small South American woman and her son when Will finally loses it and goes Kamikaze. 3) Despite having an insatiable appetite, they regularly overlook the option of eating each other.

To be fair, as many friends have pointed out, most of the movies that would appear to have inspired I Am Legend adopt a similar policy of anti-cannibalism amongst zombie societies (28 Days Later, Omega Man), but I personally still view it as an inexplicable flaw.

The movie progresses from predictably dull, usually unnecessary confrontations with the locals to nauseating dogmatic metaphor, which includes a cringe-inducing 'argument' between Smith and Anna, in which our hero rejects all hope and reiterates his own personal belief that God is in fact Bob Marley.

This confuses Anna enormously since, as she's already tried to explain, she doesn't actually know who Bob Marley is. She goes on to wonder if he's any relation of Damian, thus destroying her own credibility, and any presumed didacticism intended by the movie.

Positive points? Hard to find any. The setting was well thought out, New York did look fairly eerie, all overgrown and deserted like it was. The soundtrack was ok, I guess. And the actual concept itself is genius, in my opinion.

Sure, its been done before, but I genuinely jumped everytime a zombie showed up; despite its predictability, it will get the heart rate up. They're loud, ugly and notoriously light-footed (when they want to be) and, as such, the debate over the quality of the special effects can be overlooked if necessary.

The mediocrity of the movie however, can not. Horrible dialogue, awful plot and sickeningly sanctimonious. Give this one a miss.