caution: watching this film may turn some viewers into zombies

Rating: 2/10 (15 December 2007)

well its been awhile since i have written, but this movie compelled me to put keyboard to screen. i am a 56 year old died in the wool horror and zombie fan. i am somewhat of a studios' wet dream in that i constantly go to the movies as much as i rent or buy them. i have seen the last man on earth with vincent price and the omega man with charlton heston many times each and always enjoy them with every viewing. now i understand that the average viewer probably has not seen either of these films and has no perspective to judge by, but i am so disappointed with the vapidness and empty calories that some of these MAJOR STUDIO RELEASES end up with. will smith is an experienced professional along with the entire group of people that actually produced this project. i can almost always tell when the fingerprints of the studio weasels have been left behind and believe me this movie is definitely a renter at best. please do not spend good money to see this. the film started well enough. it just does not sustain. mr smith has been in enough movies at this point that there are scenes where he does his "will smith cutesy talk" this time mostly to a dog. how disappointing. its like the studio says...now we have to keep these "cutesy scenes" for all the people that want to see him be cutesy. what drival. all of the flashbacks with him trying to get his family out could have had much more impact with continuity instead of breaking it into little bite size pieces. the cgi work seemed to diminish as the film went on. the woman and child characters later in the film were cardboard cutouts just there to evoke smiths' dead family. lame. i found it interesting that towards the end of the movie the grenade that utterly and totally destroyed the basement lab did not harm a hair on the woman and child. it was just a thin metal door between them and the blast. they should have been buried alive. also how did the "colony" figure out a way to replicate or make any type of antivirus from one measly tube of blood? please; spare me. i guess the real sad part of all of this is the fact that nothing will stop me from continuing to hope for the best and expect the worst when i attend first run films that are virally promoted and pumped up for six months before they are released. i know that there are talented people out there and i understand that the studio is more more interested in "product" rather than movies and demographics mean more than creativity and originality. most movies these days are remakes, sequels, and adaptations from books. lets hope that the powers that be will let this one finally rest in peace.