I am Legend

This film disappoints. It just doesn’t live up to the hype and to what it could have been. I expect Will Smith action films to be non-stop and bigger than life, but this film just wasn’t that. It has to live up to the standard set by the original (The Omega Man, starring Charlton Heston) and it can’t. Why? I blame the director.

Hollywood is too quick to give the helm of major films to music video directors and films like this are the result; all style and no substance. Francis Lawrence makes a mess of what could have been a good film by spending too much time showing us how great the sets are and how spectacular he can shoot a chase scene and forgets to tell a decent story. He ignores pacing and basic storytelling which results in a slow paced, rather thin film…. sounds a lot like a music video, doesn’t it?

Lawrence tries to use flashbacks to keep us interested in Will Smith’s character and to make-up for the lack of other characters in the first two-thirds of the film, but the flashbacks only provide shallow back story and reveal nothing that we don’t already know about our lead character. Then he commits a mortal sin — the main character begins to act against his own character and starts doing things that have you scratching your head. For a character that is supposed to be very smart, Smith misses huge signs indicating what is happening around him. I blame the director for this because the signs are there — which means the screenwriter put them into the story but Lawrence either ignored them or was too obsessed with his sets to care.

In the end it’s not a bad rental but in the hands of a more talented director (maybe one who understands story!!) this could have been a great film.

Rating:

Film’s website: http://iamlegend.warnerbros.com/