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I Am Legend [Blu-ray] [2007]
from Warner Home Video
starring Will Smith, Dash Mihok, Charlie Tahan, Salli Richardson, Alice Braga
directed by Francis Lawrence

Features:

• PAL
• Special Edition

Editorial Review:

Will Smith stars in the third adaptation of Richard Matheson’s classic science-fiction novel about a lone human survivor in a post-apocalyptic world dominated by vampires. This new version somewhat alters Matheson’s central hook, i.e., the startling idea that an ordinary man, Robert Neville, spends his days roaming a desolated city and his nights in a house sealed off from longtime neighbours who have become bloodsucking fiends. In the new film, Smith’s Neville is a military scientist charged with finding a cure for a virus that turns people into crazed, hairless, flesh-eating zombies. Failing to complete his work in time, and after enduring a personal tragedy, Neville finds himself alone in Manhattan, his natural immunity to the virus keeping him alive. With an expressive German shepherd, his only companion, Neville is a hunter-gatherer in sunlight, hiding from the mutants at night in his Washington Square town house and methodically conducting experiments in his ceaseless quest to conquer the disease.

The film’s first half almost suggests that I Am Legend could be one of the finest movies of 2007. Director Francis Lawrence’s extraordinary, computer-generated images of a decaying New York City reveal weeds growing through the cracks of familiar streets that are also overrun by deer and prowled by lions. It’s impossible not to be fascinated by such a realistically altered cityscape, reverting to a natural environment, through which Smith moves with a weirdly enviable freedom, offset by his wariness over whatever is lurking in the dark of bank vaults and parking garages. Lawrence and screenwriters Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman wisely build suspense by withholding images of the monsters until a peak scene of horror well into the story. It must be said, however, that the computer-enhanced creatures don’t look half as interesting as they might have had the filmmakers adhered more to Matheson’s vampire-nightmare vision. I Am Legend is ultimately noteworthy for Smith’s remarkable performance as a man so lonely he talks to mannequins in the shops he frequents. The film’s latter half goes too far in portraying Smith’s Neville as a pitiable man with a messianic mission, but this lapse into pathos does nothing to take away from the visual and dramatic accomplishments of its first hour. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0

• Good, but a bit pridictable!
  This film is not at all, the acting is realistic and Will smith portrays the best character he has, for some time now, but the ending of the movie isnt at all great, and like others before me, yes the alternative ending is much better then the original.
  Well anyway, i believe the purpose of all blu-ray reviews is not to yap on about the movie but about the delicious transfer to HD.
  Picture: the picture is very good and sharp at most moments, the colors are spectacular and the contrast is also very... more info

• Boring...boring...boring!!!
  Boring...boring...boring!!!The plot is all a bit obvious and you know what is coming all the way through. Also, the (animal) special effects did not gel very well.why do Hollywood scriptwriters think they can improve on good books when all the do is dumb them down into unbelievable trash. Alternate ending isn't much better where he does go off with them, it's a cheap imitation of resident evil which has been there, done that, & did it much better.
  One to rent if you have no paintwork to oversee... more info

• A poignant yet crushingly depressing film
  The success of this film really is all down to the acting talents of a certain Mr. Will Smith.
  The plot follows Smith's character, an army scientist called Robert Neville- (are there such a thing as army scientists??), who seemingly is the last surviving human left. A virus has wiped out humanity and turned the people it didn't kill immediately into for want of a better description vampire zombies.
  Most of the beginning of the film is purely Neville and his pet dog searching the city looking for... more info

• Blu-ray Quality
  I thought I'd write this review for the HD fans out there. As I noticed some people have given the picture quality a 5/5. However I'm sure that there are other HD purists out there like me. I hate digital compression with a passion, to the extent it dictates what channels I watch on digital TV. I really have the eye for it. Unfortunately I was detecting digital compression on this Blu-ray disc. Mainly on Will Smith's face, it really started to annoy me. Parts of his face would stay still when he moved. This... more info

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