Post apocalyptic paradise

Rating: 8/10 (31 July 2018)

The world is once again in its post apocalyptic form on the big screen, and this time we are graced by the performance of Will Smith. A gripping narrative and a plot to match, this movie propels itself already to a higher place than many other movies that fall short on this aspect of cinematography. The formula for a great cinematic adventure is concocted by the choir of isolation and the quest for human contact begins. However, the world is now very dangerous, filled with newer threats than human greed for power and conquest. We have a chance to explore this forlorn, zombie infested world through the eyes of a brave man and his faithful dog friend. This movie, through on surface wears the guise of your typical z movie, is much more than that. The story is not sublime or hackneyed, and runs on the fuel of human innate desire for interaction. There are scenes that evince the onset of isolation and it's adverse effects, as Will traverses the ruins of the city that was once bustling with life. We are engaged deeply into the story because of how well the lead characters, particularly the protagonist, stay true to color and never give an non idiosyncratic performance. There is plenty of action to satisfy your cravings for some good ol' shoot-em-up, but that's just the icing on the cake. It's much more than that. It's a thrilling visual experience that doesn't skip a beat when it comes to special CGI effects to enhance the flavor of the film, leaving us some very interesting gut bursting, zombie annihilation. The movie juggles different themes of scarcity and abundance, isolation and accompaniment, destruction and creation. Yes, it's true that the world is wiped clean of human life and the busy, booming industrial gears of human society have come to a grinding halt, but nature finds a way. In the ruins of the botched cities, we see nature beginning to weave life as vines corral around the remnants of concrete structures, trees propping up in unlikely places, and cars are turned into a haven for critters. It makes people question how pragmatic our notions of necessity and desire have become, and how wrongfully we associate the two together in a world of materialism. The movie skillfully and hierarchically distinguishes the needs of a human being from the superficial desires that one could live without. The survivor must survive at all cost, not only the ravages of the virus that turns people into zombies, but the mind-numbing pain of loneliness.