12-18-2007, 06:22 AM
Just saw this latest version with Will Smith, and it's not a bad popcorn movie. Before I ramble any further let's be clear about that. I'm more in the camp that most movies should be judged in their context and genre, and this one is a popcorn film (with very small bits of gourmet butter). And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
There are 2 very good things in this movie to me, and although Smith did not do a bad performance at all , he's not the main reason for it.
The 2 big stars in this movie for me and I'm serious, is the dog and the scenery.
There's a scene in the beginning where Neville is in what looks like Times Square with various movie billboards, and it's got something that looks like either a Batman vs Superman or Batman & Superman movie. It's just the batman logo with a smaller superman logo in the center, but it's just a nice little touch for a comic geek like me.
Unfortunately I agree with most of the review I read in regards to the 3rd act part of the flick. In the last 30 minutes or so of the film it switches into an almost generic actioner.
It tries to deal with the idea of faith, the crisis of it and other weighty things, but the execution of it is kind of clumsy. The actual idea and concept of it is not bad, but the movie is probably not going to be endlessly debated by film geeks and sci-fi heads like say, Blade Runner.
Another snag for me is Will Smith seems to be blessed by a perpetually youthful look, but in this context it's more of a hindrance. Despite some of the more excessive 70's cheese of Omega Man, Chuck Heston to me seemed more believable appearance wise because of his age at the time.
Smith's performance is again, not actually bad in my opinion, but there's always that only slightly creased face of his, I just can't easily buy that he's a top ranking military officer AND a high level scientist when he looks like a man of at most, late 20's to mid 30's. Even with the hint of greys in his stubble. It's not impossible of course, it's just a more difficult sell for me. Again, this is not something in Smith's control obviously, since his actual performance is believable enough for me.
But enough of that, there's only so much anyone can gripe about 'missed opportunities' before it sounds like they went into the wrong theatre.
Here's where I think the flick got it absolutely right.
- The dog. Did I mention the dog? The dog is great. The canine can probably teach acting lessons to some two legged actors.
- The Manhattan scenes, post humans. I'm not agoraphobic, but some of the scenes did give me a chill.
- The scenes where the mutants are shown only in glimpses in the darkened building\nest. Especially the 'huddle' shot where Neville was in the dark building.
- The vampiric mutants, while it could've been handled better in the 3rd act, the actual idea is pretty good and scary. They are 'dumb' and vicious enough to be at best, humanoid but not human. Neville mentions them being devolved of almost any human behaviour. But a good case can be made that the mutants does display signs of intelligence and a hierarchy group. And Neville wasn't working in the best type of condition to begin with anyway.
All in all, 3 'Aw hell naaaw!'s out of 5 'I've got to get me one of these!'