Since my friend above explained the basic plot, however incoherently, I'll leave that part out of this review. I enjoyed this film on a certain level, sure, it's a mostly mindless action flick, and I expected it to be horror, but that's no matter, I actually enjoy some of Will Smith's movies, at least the ones that have a few brains behind them. Well, I can't say they thought this one out too hard, but I enjoyed the concept.
Will Smith's acting was usual, no "welcome to erf bitch!"-es, but he talks to his dog, I'm guessing for what's supposed to be loneliness or lack of human interaction. The hunting scenes, however improbable and big-action oriented, are interesting, conceptually at least. I don't get why he was hunting, there had to be plenty of canned meat and foods that were much easier to gain, thus leaving Robert Neville to spend much more time either finding a cure for the virus that has ravaged the planet in this movie, or his other obsession, finding other humans. He doesn't seem to really try that hard at either excursion, but later on through flashbacks you learn why he is so hurt and at the same time desperate for human interaction, but also kind of willing to avoid it.
This is further explored when his dog is in danger, and he does an equally stupid thing, putting himself into danger to save his dog. But I understand it, I guess because he is so desperate for companionship that he is willing to risk limb and life in order to save the only thing that is even close to a true friend. Still, I didn't think that made much sense at all. In fact, it would've been better if he lost the dog earlier on, because then you would understand his loss of family to an even greater extent. Oh well, what can I say? It's not the greatest story, a lot of stuff like that is kind of left open and untouched upon.
Still, this movie really shines in the action. Whether its the nail biting scenes where Neville has close encounters with vampires, or has to escape their traps before sundown, and then ends up with a knife in his leg, the tension is built pretty well. Again, I would have changed the story around, to have the tension loom constantly over him, because when he went home he was pretty relaxed and had plenty of time to watch movies and hang with his dog. Again, this made me question his priorities, you'd think instead of watching movies every day that he'd work on the cure or finding other people, but like I said, this isn't my story, so who cares, right?
The CGI of the creatures is passable, it's not great, but it gets the job done. It made it easy for them to move around in odd ways that no stunt man could have, but at the same time, it made them seem even more otherworldly. There's a scene after the dog dies where Neville has reached the precipice of despair, and he seems to go on a suicidal rampage where he tries to kill as many vampires as he can before they finally eat him. But he's saved! It turns out he's not the last man on Earth after all, a woman named Anna and her son show up to keep Neville company, and renew his faith in something to fight for.
I'm still not sure how this basically resourceless Anna traveled a few thousand miles, with her son in tow, to find another human being, and the resource heavy Neville just played a recorded tape on all AM frequencies to reach someone else. If he really cared, wouldn't he try at least half as hard as Anna did? Again, not my story, so I can't really say.
The special effects were otherwise well done, lots of cool car crashes and explosions, especially in the end, which I won't spoil for anyone that hasn't seen it, but the final scenes of the movie basically sum up what the title means, I guess. All in all, a pretty mindless flick, but it had cool explosions and chase scenes, some crazy looking vampires, and a great concept behind it. The execution could've used some work, and so could have the writing, it seems like it wasn't very well thought out, but I'd recommend it to Will Smith/Action fans.
6.5/10
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