Could have been so much better

Rating: 6/10 (28 December 2007)

With all of the hype and the money put into this movie, it could have been a lot better. Here's why: 1. The zombies/infected looked really fake. Too much cgi. Same with the lions/deer. But, the zombies, all they did was just open their mouth freakishly wide and scream. They looked like cartoons. They could have easily used actors, but instead decided to go with the more expensive option of animating everything. The result - it looked animated and the movements were not natural. Compare these cartoons to 28 Days Later. 2. He had a whole lab and 3-story house that was running on generators all night, but he took the time to wash the stairs up to his house off so the zombies couldn't find him? Couldn't they find him by the noise/heat of the generators? 3. The scene where he got caught in the trap was weak. Why couldn't the dogs jump through the 2 inch barrier of light? Why couldn't the alpha male who had already stood out in the light and burned his skin, run through the light and attack Will Smith? 4. Why was Anna driving around New York at night and how did she happen to be right where Will Smith was being attacked? 5. What had the zombies been eating for 3 years?
Other than that, most of the scares were startles, not scary situations. The part where he walked into the building after his dog was good though. Also, it was nice to finally see a Will Smith movie where he doesn't play a cocky full-of-himself hero (Independence Day, Bad Boys, MIB, Hitch, etc, etc, etc...)In my opinion, a scary monster movie can be judged by the creatures in the movie. In this case, the idea was good, but it was all poorly executed.