Monday, December 31, 2007

I AM LEGEND

Saw "I AM LEGEND" at the Dupont Theater this weekend, complete with the usual drunken mumbling homeless sociopath in the theater. It was pretty good, you should see it (the movie, not the bum). It's kinda like Castaway meets 28 Days Later, but with less gore. Basically, mankind screwed up again with its godless science and pretty much everyone is either dead or has become scary predatory monsters. The movie takes places three years after the mass carnage subsides and we meet who may very well be the last person on Earth, Robert Neville, who is living in New York City. A series of flashbacks help to explain the intriguing backstory of what happened. Even though a post-apocalyptic city isn't exactly a groundbreaking idea for a film (the book was written in 1954, however), the movie does a good job of immersing you in the weirdness and isolation of the setting, and minor details really magnify the eeriness.

There's still a few big questions I have, but that's probably what happens when you adapt a book and don't have the luxury of making a 3.5-hour movie. This movie's runtime is 101 minutes.
As for acting, Will Smith, in general, is pretty easy to hate just because he's so damn lovable, but he's still he's pretty convincing in the movie. He does a good job of portraying the psychosis and paranoia that someone who might actually live through those events might display without resorting to the usual cockiness of a Converse commercial turned into a movie.
All in all, it's a pretty solid post-apocalyptic suspense/thriller movie despite its PG-13 rating. See it, and tell em Brice Lord sent ya. (Don't actually do that because you'll look like an asshole.)


3 comments:

chuck zoi said...

Dude, but how the the zombies sustain their hummingbird-like metabolisms without 5 times their body weights in nectar or PCP?

But seriously the post-apocalyptic shit was very cool.

Anonymous said...

I was actually on my way to see it this weekend, but when I said "Brice Lord sent me," I was showed into a room with purple neon lights and someone asked me where I got this name from. When I refused to give you away, I was kicked out in a dark alley behind the theatre and when I ran to the entrance again, it had mysteriously disappeared. I have NO idea what that was all about. So...maybe next weekend then.

Brice Lord said...

That's not surprising. A lot of people are after me. In fact, I should've warned you about this. I appreciate your loyalty; it will be lavishly rewarded come the establishment of the New Order on Blue Monday. In the meantime, if you have any more trouble with the theaters, the password to be let in is "fidelio."