Spitfire and Jester Talk Cinema

[Jester]

Hello, I'm Jester one half of the new movie review duo of Spitfire and Jester. I figured since we are both movie fiends, yet with 2 totally different tastes in movies, we would make for an interesting pair to review movies. We are also friends, so even though there will be disagreement, there won't be (much) blood. Spitfire agreed to partner up with this thread and so here we are. We will start by offering a (belated) review of "I am Legend" staring Will Smith. (Belated mainly because I had yet to see it until last night. ) I hope you enjoy and feel free to comment on our discussions.


I went to see "I am Legend" last night because I hadn't seen it yet. (That and Thursdays at the Cabot theater are free popcorn night....score.) But anyway I finally went to see this movie after hearing mixed reviews. My sister hated it. Professional reviewers liked it. I was skeptical. I had seen the other 2 adaptations of Richard Matheson's novel staring Charlton Heston and Vincent Price in the role of Robert Neville, so I expected I wouldn't be surprised by anything in this film.

Oh, how wrong I was. "I am Legend" succeeds where the other to movies fall a little short. It freakin' spooked me. There were several scenes where a loud noise or a well placed movement made me jump, and as I've said I've seen "Last Man on Earth" and "Omega Man". Smith plays Neville well, and unlike Heston and Price isn't completely alone for most of the movie. Will's Neville has his dog Sam (short for Samantha, I literally didn't know this was a female dog until she was injured in the middle of the movie). She helps keep him sane, of course that is until he is trapped (surprisingly, considering they are assumed to be mindless) by the "zombies" and she is forced to defend him, succumbing to the modified measles virus. I admit my heart sank to see Sam hurt, maybe it's because I'm an animal lover.

Later Neville tries to kill himself after losing his only companion, only to be saved by 2 other virus plague survivors. Neville is literally alone for maybe hours before he snaps completely. Man he's not very emotionally stable. One of the survivors, a woman named Anna, says that she and the young boy with her, Ethan, are heading to a survivors camp in Vermont and want Neville to go with them. Neville says he must finish what he started and fix what happened to New York. Near the end Neville's home is attacked by those infected by the virus and they attempt to kill Neville. He helps Ethan, Anna, and a possible cure to escape while sacrificing himself in the process.

All in all I liked this movie. Will Smith does an admirable job portraying the last survivor in New York. The expansive abandoned New York showed just how lonely his existence must have been. My only real gripe is with the "creatures" themselves. They are obviously CG characters and though they do look a lot better than the infected from "Omega Man" (I swear they look like they had a flour fight.) it's still very obvious that they are not real. But still I would recomend this movie to the 3 other people who still gotten of their lazy backsides and seen it. It's not "Citizen Kane," but it's a fun movie to see on free popcorn night at your local theater.