I Am... Reasonably Entertained

Annoyingly, for the sake of 'clever' blog posts titles at least, if I had strong feelings either way with regards to I Am Legend, I could have said something like, 'I Am Underwhelmed', or 'I Am Impressed'.

As it is, that's probably a good thing, as I imagine every talentless hack from here to Harrogate has already used one or the other.

It's strange that a film with such epic themes should leave so little impression, although having said that I wouldn't by any means consider it a waste of my valuable time/money. If I'm saying something similar after I go and see Alien Vs Predator in a couple of weeks, I'll be very much surprised.

SPOILY SPOILSTON ALERT

The Good:

1. The CGI. In helping to recreate a desolate New York City (at least I assume they didn't really blow up the Brooklyn Bridge), the use of computer technology has perhaps never been better implemented.
2. As ever, it's the little details that always linger longest in my memory. The movie poster that would seem to imply some sort of Batman/Superman crossover was a particularly nice touch.
3. The zombie leader. It was an unexpectedly creepy idea to have one of the infected lunatics retain his cognitive function, and indeed prove to be particularly cunning.

The Bad:

1. The CGI. I don't know who thought it would be acceptable to cut and paste the zombies from one of the Resident Evil games into a film and think anyone would be impressed. All they did was take you out of the film whenever you saw them up close. Rubbish. And what was with their stupid stretchy jaws? It was like something left over from one of the Mummy films.
2. Before I saw the film, I noticed it was a 15 certificate, and I was also under the impression that it was over 2 hours long. Upon watching it, it's clear neither of these things appears to be accurate. There's nothing in there that wouldn't seem out of place in a 12A (I don't even remember any swearing), and the running time clocks in at just over 90 mins, which seems very short indeed for a film dealing with such big ideas - although apparently the previous adaptation of Richard Matheson's book - The Omega Man starring Charlton Heston - is of similar length.
3. If that zombie is clever enough to set elaborate traps for Will Smith, why doesn't he wear some clothes so he can walk about in the daytime? And how come when Will stabs himself in the leg and has to drag himself to his car, is he able to stand up as soon as he reaches it? Or how, for that matter, after he's thrown all around his house the next day by King Zomb', is he still able to leg it upstairs afterwards?
4. And what was all the God-bollocks about at the end? I half expected Will to have a vision of his wife telling him everything was going to be alright.

The Ugly:

1. I dropped a pound on the floor just before the film started, which I failed to retrieve afterwards, even with the MacGyver-esque use of my iPod as a kind of impromptu torch, and if I can manage to say anything positive at all about the film after such hardship, it must have something going for it.