Movie Review: "I Am Legend"
Dec. 29th, 2007 02:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrixrefugeeWhich I saw at an IMAX theatre with Mark, who's in town this week...
****** out of *****
I Am Impressed. This is one of those rare times when a movie is as good as, if not better than the book it's based on. I like how they improved the pacing of it: we don't actually see the vampires until about a good fifteen to twenty minutes into the movie. which makes their appearance all the more frightening. I know one reviewer described the vamps as being more like zombies, but they reminded me of one of the Greek incarnations of vampires, specifically the vrykolakas (and I *KNOW* I'm not spelling that right).
Will Smith puts a lot more depth into Robert Neville's character; in the book, the character comes off more than a bit too emo for my taste, but the Fresh Prince gives him a spine. I like how they've adjusted the character to make his survival skills and planning a lot more convincing. They even put a human slant on the otherwise barely-human vampires, particularly the lead vampire.
The atmosphere is incredible and the grunging-up of NYC (broken windows, downed signs, fallen Christmas decorations, grass and large weeds growing in the cracks of the pavement on Broadway) is so meticulously rendered, you feel like it really happened. I also liked the intersection between faith and cold reason that was brought in later in the story, which I think is a testament to director Francis Lawrence (who also directed "Constantine"), whom I suspect is Catholic.
I think this movie is best enjoyed in IMAX, but I say this about most movies. Just don't sit on the edge of the theatre if you have Asperger's Syndrome: I think my seat was directly over one of the sub-sub-woofers since every time there was a loud bit (not many in this movie, but there were more than a few in the six minutes preview for the new Batman movie), my seat started to rumble.
*******
Funny comment from Mark, on IMAX screens and the light show they had playing on it before the movie began: "Doesn't it remind you of a big ocean aquarium? Like a big whale or something might go swimming by?"
****** out of *****
I Am Impressed. This is one of those rare times when a movie is as good as, if not better than the book it's based on. I like how they improved the pacing of it: we don't actually see the vampires until about a good fifteen to twenty minutes into the movie. which makes their appearance all the more frightening. I know one reviewer described the vamps as being more like zombies, but they reminded me of one of the Greek incarnations of vampires, specifically the vrykolakas (and I *KNOW* I'm not spelling that right).
Will Smith puts a lot more depth into Robert Neville's character; in the book, the character comes off more than a bit too emo for my taste, but the Fresh Prince gives him a spine. I like how they've adjusted the character to make his survival skills and planning a lot more convincing. They even put a human slant on the otherwise barely-human vampires, particularly the lead vampire.
The atmosphere is incredible and the grunging-up of NYC (broken windows, downed signs, fallen Christmas decorations, grass and large weeds growing in the cracks of the pavement on Broadway) is so meticulously rendered, you feel like it really happened. I also liked the intersection between faith and cold reason that was brought in later in the story, which I think is a testament to director Francis Lawrence (who also directed "Constantine"), whom I suspect is Catholic.
I think this movie is best enjoyed in IMAX, but I say this about most movies. Just don't sit on the edge of the theatre if you have Asperger's Syndrome: I think my seat was directly over one of the sub-sub-woofers since every time there was a loud bit (not many in this movie, but there were more than a few in the six minutes preview for the new Batman movie), my seat started to rumble.
*******
Funny comment from Mark, on IMAX screens and the light show they had playing on it before the movie began: "Doesn't it remind you of a big ocean aquarium? Like a big whale or something might go swimming by?"
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Date: 2007-12-30 07:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-31 03:01 am (UTC)I recommend "The Orphanage" if you can fins it (possibly in some little art-house cinema)– it's a Spanish Gothic-ish horror movie in the veins of "The 6th Sense" or "The Others". I LOVED it, despite my status as the biggest chicken on the planet....
~Ruby