| Overall Grade: |
A- |
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| Story: |
B+ |
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| Acting: |
A |
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| Direction: |
A |
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| Visuals: |
A |
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As far as remakes go this one works.
by adam (movies profile)
Dec 31, 2007
29
of
33 people found this review helpful
Many are going to say this movie ripped of "28 Day's Later" or "Dawn of the Dead." What they need to realize is those movies ripped off the "Omega Man."
One of my all time favorite movies, "The Omega Man" starring Charlton Heston, is a 1971 movie about a virus that wipes out much of humanity. However watching the movie it is very dated and was one of those movies I felt needed to be redone.
The best way to describe this movie is to compare it to "Dawn of the Dead." The original "Dawn" was a very slow paced thought provoking movie about many socialogical issues. The remake succeeded because they made a completely different movie using a template that works. The same can be said about "I Am Legend."
In the "Omega Man" like in "I Am Legend" a select group of people are immune to the virus while another small group are simply mutated. While in "Omega Man" the mutants are light sensitive they remain intelligent and see the virus as God's punishment. "Legend" takes advantage of the recent sucess of Zombie movies by making the mutants rabid and mindless.
"I Am Legend" works for many reasons but most prominant is Will Smith's acting. It's hard to believe that the same guy I was jamming to as the "Fresh Prince" is able to carry the slower parts of the movie through his acting. Much like Tom Hanks in "Castaway" it must be difficult to have a majority of the movie having to act by yourself, to CG characters, or to a dog.
Director Francis Lawrence should be applauded with the screen adaption, using color and lighting to really create a mood for this movie. However the thing I found most haunting about this movie was the complete lack of sound in the movie. An obvious choice, sound (or lack of it) almost becomes a character in the movie. The lack of sound haunts you, and then haunts you when it is broken, with the noise of distant zombies.
I must also give praise to the suttle storytelling used throughout the movie. It comes in many forms, for example; the movie could have been linear, starting with the plague and ending with the final scenes. However, Lawrence decides to move place the "plague" scenes throughout the movie as flashbacks. Also notice suttle things in the background, like how high the price of gas is on the signs, it's little attention to detail that really makes movies real. However the best example of this is something that I think all modern filmmakers should learn from. In movies like "Saw" and "Hostel" they think that the best way to deal with gore is to show it. Showing dead people, showing killing. For a movie about a virus that turns people into flesh eating zombies... there is really not a lot of violence.
I do have two plot points I'm struggling with on if I like them or not. Fist, in the "Omega Man" the mutants know exactly where he is, where in "Legend" he hides from the hordes of mutants. Also the mutants are for the most part, stupid. "Omega Man" is essentially a movie about the idea's of the past vs. modernization. "Legend" doesn't even remotely touch on this subject.
"Legend" is exactly what a remake should be, a modernization of a good idea. "Legend" takes the positives in "Omega Man" and makes a fast paced thriller/action movie that still remains thought provoking at it's core. |
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