Sunday, December 23, 2007

I Am Legend


Last Friday night I finally went and saw "I am Legend" and I got to say I was impressed and suitably creeped out. In contrast to the zoned-out, slow-moving retarded zombies in "The Omega Man", these are the uber pumped-up, fast-moving vicious, nasty zombies ("Darkseekers") who actually lay traps and screw with Neville; the whole scene with the snare is something to watch. Of course it doesn't help that Neville is slowly losing his mind, making him more vulnerable.

Also, it seems that once the Darkseekers zero in on Neville's lair, they make short work of the defenses- it's pretty scary. Even after he touches off the fougasse mines (he should have backed the side facing his lair so they blow out forward). The other thing is that it takes A LOT of firepower to bring the average Darkseeker down (I think it's because they're hyped up on some sort of perpetual adreniline rush). Personally, I'd upped the firepower quotient at least 100%- there should have been plenty of mil-spec firepower lying around for the taking (better take it before the Darksskers start figuring it out).

Naturally, if I were him, I'd stocked up on a lot of grenades and especially the thermite variety (as pictured below). Also, a lot of white phosporous would have helped in cleaning out the nests or in defending his lair. It also would have helped using one of those APCs left lying around- I don't think the Darkseekers could have dealt with that. But hey, I like second-guessing the movie.



Just the thing for dealing with Darkseekers.

What I find really unsettling is the realization that clearly the infected zombies/Darkseekers helped speed the demise of the normal humans by slaughtering them until there was only their kind left.

The CGI work is excellent, especially of the deer and the lions (bet the Darkseekers don't screw with the lions too much) and it's awesome to see an empty, quiet Manhattan- it's positively weird! Apparently, a lot of CGI work went into removing pedestrians and any other sign of life (you can't kick out the population while filming!). Finally, all the Darkseekers were rendered with CGI and they're a fierce, bloodthirsty lot.

It's also very thought-provoking on the whole idea of genetic manipulation and viruses. At least I thought so...

I recommend this one but don't bring the kids!

Here's a link to what supposedly is the script that was to be used in the re-make of "I Am Legend" that was supposed to have been made in the early 1990s with Arnold Schwarnegger but was ultimately cancelled. It's a lot more creepy that the recent movie version but I think it was ultimately unfilmable- too many scenes and it would have been too long. I can see why they cancelled it.

No comments: