|
The first two thirds of the movie I thought were really spectacular. I was creeped out, I felt claustrophobic stuck on this one man who has taken to talking to manequins to keep himself company with the good scare coming every once in a while. Smith did a great job of running the show and bringing us inside the character's rampant alternating fear and hope and paranoia. The opening shots of New York deserted were phenomenal.
And then it all fell apart. Act 3 was just...terrible. The zombie/vampire special effects were embarassing for a movie made in 2007. That was the best they could do? Really? Have they seen NONE of the vampire or zombie movies of the past 5 years? The scenes where the zombies were actually out in the open were made much less enjoyable because of those effects. I just don't know what they were thinking when they settled for that, because it was a huge fail. The "everyone's happy" ending did not fit with the brooding, paranoid tone of the rest of the movie and the "god is telling us what to do" was just bad writing, which says nothing for how seriously they perverted the irony of the title. It all really paled in comparison to how taut and compelling the movie was until Sam died, which is too bad.
Ah well, I'm glad I saw it, though I doubt I'll be purchasing it. In a nutshell, take two parts "The Stand", two parts "Castaway" and one part "28 Days Later'. Layer into a cold glass and chug. It's probably worth seeing for the opening two sections, even if the end doesn't do the rest justice.
|