I Am legend
Evan Winiker
2008-01-14
Directed by Francis Lawrence The advent of the internet has changed the landscape of the entertainment marketplace. The average viewer can find any movie on the internet, buy any DVD on Amazon.com, and watch any trailer on Imdb. By next year, no one will be willing to pay $12 to sit in an uncomfortable seat for two hours. Just like the record industry, cinema is going through a tough transition period, and the studios are looking for the next messiah to get them out of the red for the fourth quarter. Thank god for the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. With his whimsical charm and catchy one liners, Will Smith has single handedly saved Warner Bros. from fiscal chaos in '07, and is leading the charge for a strong holiday season. Simply put, I Am Legend tells the story of a virus, a plague, a survivor and his quest. In the year 2009 a group of researchers discovered what they thought was a cure for cancer. The world quickly got on board and almost everyone was injected with the "cure." Unfortunately, it was not a cure, it was virus that ate away at the immune system until it turned its host into an infected mutant. Robert Neville (Will smith) is a scientist, and one of the only survivors-his mission is to find out how the virus takes over the host and search for other humans. With the aid of his german shepherd, Sam, Neville playfully walks through an empty city, hitting golf balls off the intrepid and hunting dears in times square. Fun film. My biggest complaint was that that movie failed to capture the loneliness of the supposed "last man in New York." He seemed too chipper during the day, even when he was fighting zombies, for me to believe that he was truly alone. Smith does carry the movie well with the one liners that really haven't stopped coming since Men in Black. In Will Smith terms, this is no Six Degrees of Separation, it's more of an Independence Day action film that gets pretty scary at some point. By now, the film has grossed over a few hundred million worldwide, but truthful it will be forgotten during awards season and remembered when it hits the shelves of Blockbuster.
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