I am Legend (Movie Review)

Two days before the last theater in NY/NJ area would stop showing "I am Legend", I was finally able to watch it and I must say, I was quite pleased with the experience, which was well worth the wait. In fact, I would rate it 5 stars on NetFlix and have even been inspired to start a whole separate blog on how to survive a zombie outbreak -- http://zombie-protocol.blogspot.com/

*spoilers below*

The first thing I noticed about the movie was that it was so intense, and kept that level of intensity throughout most of the movie. That first scene where the dog runs into the building really kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time he was in the building. I liked how the initial sighting of the "monsters" were of them huddled in a dark room. The movie in all didn't go into the gory/bloody aspect of it, focusing more on their aggression. Also, the surprise shocks weren't overdone and were spread out enough throughout the movie.

The "monsters" themselves were more of a hybrid between zombies and vampires. The inability to go into the sun is a key weakness with regard to zombie infestation because it allowed him to basically have free reign of supplies and resources during the day. This weakness, however, was countered with superior strength, speed, agility, durability, and sense of smell to that of regular zombies. It was also interesting that they had domesticated zombie dogs and had the ability to communicate (similar to Land of the Dead). In some cases, the "monsters" seemed a little too CG, but then again I suppose it was because they were diseased, not dead, and that you can't really get people to move with that speed and agility. To this effect, it made the day safer, but the night even more dangerous. I suppose when infested by zombies, you can't pick and choose.

I feel that he could have been better prepared and secured, given that he has had 3 years. I suppose his time was spent more on finding a cure than actually securing his surroundings, but then again, I guess it was also to move the plot along. I will go more into detail as to how he could have better prepared himself in my zombie protocol blog.

All in all, I was exceedingly satisfied with the movie, though I would have liked to see more flashback of the island being overrun, rather then being just empty. This leads to the potential to parallel storylines, such as the mother and son, as well as the VT colony. However, I think that despite how much I would like to see another one, the producers should just leave a good thing be and not look to make any sequels. The story was well done and should be left that way.

Small issues I had with the movie:
- It was a big Apple commercial (ipod, mac, etc)
- If he had 6 redundant drives, why did he keep them all in the same place?
- Why didn't he just throw the grenade through the small opening in the glass?

Other things I found cool/interesting about the movie:
- In Times Square, they had an ad for a Batman/Superman movie.
- In the opening scene, he was driving a Ford Mustang GT500.
- I liked how he "rented" movies.