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I Am Legend, a review by Jon

I Am Legend (2007)
3 out of 5



Bloody Hollywood.

I've always said that it doesn't matter if they change a story from a well-known book, as long as they keep the spirit. They were so close here, but bottled it. It just falls apart right in front of you! It's like watching a star runner collapse with an asthma attack a foot off the finish line!

First off, let me say, overall I enjoyed I Am Legend a great deal. It's a fast paced action/horror with a few genuinely unnerving moments. Plus the overall story is a corker: everyone is dead from a virus, apart from Robert Neville (Will Smith) who is immune and trying to find a cure. The story follows his daily routine with Sam, his dog (amazing performance!), and his friends (the mannequins) and his not-so-friends (the vampires).

Smith is fantastic as probably the last man alive showing us both an action man and a very vulnerable, grieving man. An empty, ruined New York is creepy. And the sequences with the infected were great. What really wins it is director Francis Lawrence's understanding of silence and using a handheld camera every now and again. Along with scenes willing to show a broken, fallible hero, It makes for an unusual blockbuster. He proves he's the man to bring the classic novel to the screen with the story intact. That is, up until the third act where all is abandoned to Hollywood convention. Particularly frustrating to those who know the book and could see the threads forming early on.

The DVD features an alternate version with the original ending on before it was hacked and reshot for the theatrical release. It was a brave attempt at the books more powerful coda. However for it to have worked properly, they needed better villains.


Instead, they stick with convention. Ironically a convention the book created! It is a sci-fi milestone that inspired modern vampire/zombie myth, but none of it's pretenders have ever quite pulled off the same idea. This proved they could do it.  It could have easily been more powerful than the average blockbuster and it's only real crime is playing safe, stuffing up the reason for the title, and handing us a fun movie rather than a horror classic. Maybe next time.

Bloody Hollywood.

EDIT: Dropped the rating after sleeping on it. The decision to use full CGI for the infected is fundamentally flawed and therefore stupid. It undermines all the other (very) good work. Though the film came close to making a fair, modern telling of the book, it was never going to convince. They look ridiculous and such a basic flaw cannot be ignored.

(From October Marathon: Horror! on October 2nd, 2008)

Alice in Wonderland, a review by Critter

Alice in Wonderland (Special Edition)



Year: 1951

Director(s): Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson

Run Time: 75 minutes

Plot: Alice stumbles into the world of Wonderland. Will she get home? Not if the Queen of Hearts has her way.

Cast:
Kathryn Beaumont - Alice
Ed Wynn - Mad Hatter
Richard Haydn - Caterpillar
Sterling Holloway - Cheshire Cat
Jerry Colonna - March Hare
Verna Felton - Queen of Hearts
J. Pat O'Malley - Tweedledee / Tweedledum / The Walrus / The Carpenter
Bill Thompson - White Rabbit / Dodo


DVD Extras:My ThoughtsMy Rating



(From Critter's Animated Film/Anime Marathon on December 8th, 2009)

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: Starfleet has developed a plan to expose Chancellor Gowron as a changeling. For this Sisko has to borrow Dukat's Bird of Prey and fly deep into the klingon territory. There O'Brien, Odo and he poses as Klingons - or at least Worf tries to teach them how to do that. And of course it's not that easy for a random klingon warrior to get close to his ruler.

My Opinion: It was great to see Brooks, Auberjonois and Meaney in klingon masks and costume, especially Brooks. And it was funny to see how they tred to behave like Klingons. But I have to admit I think it was a dangerous choice to take Odo, given his current state of mind. Even if it wasn't voiced in the episode the reason was obviously to challenge Odo, to show him that he can do his job even as a "solid" but he could as well blown it. But in the end it worked out ok and I liked the twist that it wasn't Gowron at all.

Synopsis: Sisko leads an expidition to a planet in the GQ where they want to determine whether it's suitable for a mining operation. But then a Jem'Hadar warship crashes on that planet - there are no survivors. But while they are inspecting the wreckage yet another Dominion ship arrives and in the following fight Sisko's people get trapped in the wreck. Surprisingly the Vorta offers safe conduct if they'd leave the ship. But now Sisko has become curious about what's so important about a crashed ship (and of course he doesn't trust her to keep her word).

My Opinion: OK, I was tired, but I dozed off during the episode, what does that tell you?

Synopsis: Grillka, Quark's klingon ex-wife, comes to the station because the war had some heavy impacts on her financial situation. And while Quark is happy to see her again, he's not the only one who finds her fascinating. Worf tries to impress her but doesn't succeed due to his dishonoured status within the empire. In the end he agrees to help Quark courting her.

My Opinion: The beginning of a beautiful romance. No, not Quark and Grillka, but Dax and Worf. "par'Mach" is klingon for "love", just a lot tougher than its human counterpart. It was great to see Quark courting Grillka and fighting his challenger while Worf and Dax were secretly helping him to survive. And of course the best part was where the two pairs came into the infirmary at the end of the episode.


Synopsis: Bashir and Jake (who's writing an article about Bashir) return from a medical conference when they receive an emergency call. They change course and land on a planet where a Federation force tries to hold the line against klingon ground troops. And while Dr. Bashir works in the clinic Jakes tries to help and not to stand in someone's way. But he also has to learn about the horrors of war.

My Opinion: I thought this was a really good episode. Once again DS9 has shown Humans much more human and not as perfect as they had been portrayed in TNG. I liked the idea of hearing Jakes notes as voiceover, to hear what he was feeling right now when he meet all these different kind of people. And that he didn't consider himself a hero just because he saved the day by accident even though everyone else does - that was great.

(From Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Marathon on January 24th, 2009)