It started out really well. Everything about it was quality. There were lots of interesting scenes. Will Smith was great. The dog was great. The visuals were great. The empty New York city was very cool.
Then it went down hill. The vampire zombies were cheap and corny. Dodgy CGI and lame head-stretching CGI screams. It's like all the CGI horror movie modellers have read the same B-Grade Horror Movie CGI Techniques for Dummies book.
After that I felt like it totally lost it. The last half was hopeless. It didn't make much sense. The dialogue deteriorated. The main character became way less good and interesting. As with most Hollywood movies they seem to invest a lot of effort building characters and plot, just to fritter all the hard work away at the end with some traditional anti-climactic ending.
I think it's reaffirmed my belief that there isn't enough time in one film to do good action and good character development (unless you're very good or make a long film). I think when Hollywood makes action films it tries to compromise by sticking in character development as well. The outcome is mostly a wash out.
I don’t know that I want to see it now. Maybe it’s a DVD rental option. I read about the crummy vampires and wondered why they chose to use CGI when Buffy, Blade, and Underworld all used “real” vampires to much better effect. At least the dog was good. That’s nice to know.
Lesley / 10:55am / 6 January 2008
There were similar sorts of characters in 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later which were heaps better. The vampires in Legend would have been B-grade 5 years ago.
Ryan / 11:25am / 6 January 2008
Haven’t watched the film yet but i really liked the book. However, i can see how translating it to a Hollywood film would rip the guts out of it…
Miles / 10:05am / 7 January 2008