Today I saw two movies. I saw two because the first one was less than satisfying. First, “I Am Legend,” it started off ok with a short news clip foreshadowing the future, then it cuts two 3 years later where everyone on earth is either dead or a bloodthirsty mutant and Will Smith is an immune scientist trying to fix everything. The first half was good, with some nice aerial shots of NYC completely deserted (except for the deer and lions) and overgrown. Then, the mutants are introduced with a suspenseful scene in a dark apartment building. Throughout it all you see flashbacks of the panic just before the end. It was in one of these flashbacks that the movie took a sharp downhill dive. Smith is saying goodbye to his wife and daughter who are boarding a helicopter and his wife then starts praying for God (no not god, we all know which one) to keep him safe. [SPOILERS FOLLOW] Later, he is rescued by a woman who heard the message that he’s been broadcasting and she tells him that it was God that told her to come meet him (no it wasn’t coincidence), thankfully Smith calls her on this bullshit because by now he’s lost the faith. However, later he discovers the cure (while under siege by mutants) and decides that the only way he can make sure that the woman and a boy (who may be her son?) make it out alive is to blow himself up with a hand grenade, when she asks why he tells her God told him to…bullshit. The woman and the boy make it to a camp of patriotic survivors (in an SUV that my dad pointed out to be absolutely spotless). Overall disappointing end. Because of my dissatisfaction, I decided to rent “28 Weeks Later.” I had seen “28 Days Later” not too long ago, which was very good, and hoped this one would be as good. It was. It starts out with an asshole leaving his wife behind to be eaten by zombies. Later, when the infection is all gone, his children come back to England (from some refugee camp) and discover their mother, still alive, in their old house. She has what appears to be a codominant gene which apparently makes her an immune carrier. The idiot father then goes to talk to her in quarantine (before they discover she’s infected), kisses her, becomes infected, goes mad and kills her (graphically). Then goes on a rampage, which leads the American soldiers to go on a rampage killing anything that could be infected (everyone). One defect sniper decides that he can’t take, it ignores his orders, and attempts to rescue a few survivors (including the two children, which the medical officer believes hold a possible cure). Later, an attempted helicopter pickup goes wrong when the pilot refuses to take all of the survivors with him. Instead he goes after a horde of infected chasing his fellow soldier (the sniper), cutting them to bits with his heli’s rotors (graphically…wow, was that an arm?). Eventually, the only ones left are the two kids and the med officer all in a car being attacked by an apache heli, they decide to escape into the subway (are you shitting me?). They trip on some dead people and get separated. The med is then killed by none other than the father (he just doesn’t give up). The father bites the son and the daughter kills him, turns out that the boy is also immune. They get picked up by the helicopter and fly off. [28 days later] Infected are running out into the light and down some steps, the Eiffel Tower in the background. All in all, much better. However, it was missing that English charm that counter balanced the bleakness in the first one.
