When I watch a movie, the single biggest thing I look for is impact. If it’s a comedy, does it make me laugh? If it’s a documentary, does it make me think, and perhaps change my viewpoint on something? If it’s an action movie, does it make my pulse quicken? If it’s a thriller, does it make me nervous and jumpy?
I Am Legend, starring Will Smith, is an action/thriller/horror hybrid that does the job quite nicely. I won’t ruin it for anyone, but the basic premise that the trailer reveals is that Will Smith’s character is the last human left on Manhattan Island, his only companion is his dog, and he has to find the cure to something…something that, when night comes, causes very bad things to happen.
Maybe it’s because Ashley and I went to a late afternoon matinée, so when we left the movie theatre it the sun was setting, or maybe it was because I was dropping Ashley off at her parent’s house and I was going home along to a house with only my dog…but I sure felt jumpy on the way home and for a while afterwards! The movie really got under my skin, but in a good, entertaining way. Will Smith pulls off the nearly impossible feat of not being boring when pretty much the only thing the camera focuses on for the bulk of the movie is him. About the only negative thing I have to say about it is that the CGI “creatures” didn’t look all that believable, but not comically so. It’s still a gripping, tense movie – a movie worth watching. [Web site / HD trailers]