A Legend In The Making?

Rating: 7/10 (30 December 2007)

I had been looking forward to this movie since the trailer and the more I heard about it the more I wanted to see it.
The movie starts of with Robert Neville (Will Smith) hunting dear in a deserted, desolate New York (a sight that is always unnerving to see). It was a fantastic opening to the movie as we get to see New York, the city that doesn't sleep, in such a scary state and from thereon we learn that Emma Thompson found a cure for cancer some years earlier which caused the outbreak of a deadly disease almost wiping out mankind - with the exception of Will Smith.
There are few actors who can literally carry a film on their own so whether you like or loath him you have to admit that Will Smith is one of those actors who can achieve this (can you imagine if Tom Cruise played Robert Neville??)
There are some very tense scenes such as when Sam runs into the building and one very sad death scene which will take you by surprise about how much you care for this little character but overall the anticipation and build up was all for nothing when you actually get to see the "vampires".
They all looked like Imhotep from The Mummy Returns before he became fully human. It is a fine example of CGI ruining a film - I honestly think that if the "vampires" were played by real people they would have been scarier and much more believable.
There were a few parts of the film that really annoyed me - Will Smith must have it written into his contract that he must have the coolest car known to man in all of his movies. Driving full throttle down deserted New York in a Ford GT looked cool but completely out of place.
Why did Anna and Ethan swing by New York on their way to Vermont? I'm not a geography expert but did they swim across the river to New York on the way?
Neville claimed that the "Vampires" had now lost all recognisable signs of human behaviour yet they were clearly following a leader (Imhotep), and were capable of mimicking Neville's own trap and capturing him. I actually thought at one stage that the leader was P'd of that Neville was testing the cure out on his girlfriend and had come to rescue her!
Overall though it was an entertaining film and I would give it a 7/10. I loses a point for being a remake, a point of the Ford GT in New York and a point for the disappointing look of the "vampires".
Go and see the movie and allow yourself to get caught up in it but if you are like me you will spend the whole movie waiting for one of those mannequins to move their heads - now that would make for a scary film!