I Am Legend was one of the biggest box office hits of 2007, finishing in sixth place on the year with an estimated domestic gross of $256,393,000 and change. The film received lots of positive reviews, and since I usually like Will Smith movies, I knew I’d eventually get around to seeing it. I didn’t have a chance to catch it in theaters, but was finally able to rent it last weekend.

I managed to remain unspoiled for this film, meaning I didn’t have any idea what it was about beyond what was shown in trailers. As it turns out, I shouldn’t have gone to all that trouble to avoid reading detailed reviews or listening in on discussions my friends had about the movie because not much happened in it anyway!

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Smith stars as Col. Robert Neville, a man who appears to be the only human survivor in New York City after a deadly virus wiped out the rest of the population in the year 2012. Neville spends most of his days driving around the city with his dog Sam, hunting wild game and scrounging for supplies.

Strangely, he keeps a close eye on the time and makes sure to hustle back home while there’s still a bit of sunlight left. Furthermore, he barricades himself in his home at night, barring the door and pulling steel barriers down over the windows. Hmm, maybe he’s not alone after all.

As luck would have it, Neville is a virologist, so he spends the rest of his abundant free time in his basement laboratory working on cure for whatever wiped out most of humanity in the first place. He currently runs his test on bats and other creatures, but according to his notes, nothing has proven effective so far.

Later we learn that Neville does indeed have company in NYC. Apparently, not all of the infected humans died. Those that weren’t killed outright by the virus ended up suffering from rabies-like symptoms that not only turned them into raving lunatics, but also disfigured/elongated their skulls and transformed them into vampire-like creatures that are afraid of sunlight. Neville runs into a couple of these creatures in an abandoned building, and again later on when he gets ensnared in a trap.

Neville then gets a shock when two more uninfected survivors show up in the city. They are Anna (played by Alice Barga) and Ethan (Charlie Tahan), who help rescue him after he essentially tries to kill himself following the death of Sam, his only companion. Anna says they are heading to a survivor’s camp in Vermont, and encourages Neville to join them. Neville, however, replies that there are no survivors and that the two of them would just be wasting their time.

Things come to a head when Neville’s formerly secret abode is discovered by the vampire-like beings. These creatures apparently followed Anna and Neville after Anna’s rescue mission, and are now laying siege to the place. Neville leads Anna and Ethan to the basement, where he secures them in a hiding place. He also discovers that his latest cure actually worked, so he takes a vial of blood from the test subject, gives it to Anna, and tells her to carry it to the survivor’s camp. Neville then turns to face the onslaught of infected creatures, pulls out a grenade, and blows the lab up in order to save humanity.

My Reaction: I was kind of disappointed with I Am Legend because absolutely nothing happens in the first 30 minutes of the film! That whole time was spent in establishing Will Smith’s character, showing his daily routine, and hinting at what happened. The first vampire creature appeared right around the 30-minute mark, at which point things started to get a bit better. But that first part of the movie? What a snooze!

I also didn’t like how most of the story hinged on how Neville just happened to be a virologist who could sit around in the post-apocalyptic world and develop a cure. I mean, I’m willing to accept a certain amount of coincidence in movies, but that was a big one that was really hard to swallow.

After watching the film, I decided to go read the Wikipedia entry about the original novel, and I have to say that it sounded infinitely better than this adaptation. One line in the summary over there reads:

Neville sees the destruction of the infected survivors as a right, a moral imperative even, to be pursued for his own — and in turn the human race’s — survival. But at the end of the novel, he has a glimpse of a future society in which infection is the norm and Neville is a murderous deviant.

To me, that seems like it would have made a far more interesting theme than the standard Hollywood cleanup that we got in the latest adaptation, where Neville is turned into a typical hero who sacrifices himself to save the world. No wonder so many fans of the original novel were upset with the liberties taken in the film!

Overall, I Am Legend suffers from slow development, a boring plot, and an uninspired ending. I give the film just 2 stars out of 5, and wish I had read the original book instead!

I’m not really a big Nicole Kidman fan, despite the fact that I think she’s a terrific actress. The problem I have with Kidman is that she’s usually in films that I simply cannot stand. Cold Mountain, Moulin Rouge!, Eyes Wide Shut, The Interpreter… these were all incredibly boring movies to me. In fact, the only Kidman film that I’ve actually enjoyed is The Others, which came out way back in 2001.

So when I heard that she was starring with Daniel Craig in a sci-fi thriller called The Invasion, I was pretty skeptical about how the whole thing would come off. Nevertheless, I decided to rent the DVD a couple days ago when to give it a chance. Surprisingly, I thought the film was actually decent (all things considered).

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): The Invasion opens with a scene showing a space shuttle attempting to return to Earth after a mission. In an accident reminiscent of the Columbia disaster of 2003, the shuttle in the film breaks up upon reentry, scattering debris across a large portion of the U.S. Unlike the Columbia disaster, however, the debris in The Invasion is contaminated with a fungus-like alien lifeform.

As recovery crews, experts from the CDC, and looters all scramble to examine the debris, the aliens begin their invasion. They infect people through liquids, completely taking over the body. Those who have been contaminated turn into little more than robots, going through their daily routines in the most mechanical manner possible while exhibiting zero human emotions.

One infected CDC official named Tucker Kaufman (played by Jeremy Northam) gets the brilliant idea of disguising the alien fungus as a flu vaccination and encouraging people to take the shots in order to protect them from this particularly virulent strain. This of course helps spread the alien lifeform even faster.

Only a handful of people realize what’s going on, including Tucker’s ex-wife Carol (Kidman). Carol starts to get suspicious when many of her psych patients claim that loved ones aren’t acting like themselves anymore. Carol, along with colleague Ben Driscoll (Craig) and a few others, then scramble to avoid detection and infection until a cure can be developed.

My Reaction: Apparently, The Invasion is a remake/update of the 1978 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I learned that just before I sat down to watch The Invasion, and wondered if I’d be able to follow the action even though I knew nothing of the earlier movie. Fortunately, I was.

I usually don’t enjoy sci-fi films of any kind, but I as I said above, I thought The Invasion was pretty good. I don’t necessarily mean from a logic standpoint, as there were numerous plot holes and inconsistencies that made me roll my eyes, but from a suspenseful, what’s-going-to-happen-next standpoint. I thought the filmmakers did an excellent job of creating tension and uncertainty. It was easy to get involved with Carol’s plight, even though I thought the whole idea of alien spores was kind of ridiculous.

One thing I could have done without was seeing the infected people puke on non-infected ones in order to spread the spores around. That was completely disgusting! I would have felt much better if all the transmissions came from tea, coffee, or coke.

I thought Kidman was her usual competent self in this film. Again, I like her as an actress and think that she’s one of the best around. She was fine here, and even though her performance was not particularly memorable, at least it didn’t annoy.

Daniel Craig, on the other hand, was barely tolerable. I absolutely love this guy as James Bond, but I’ve now seen him in two other films (The Invasion and Sylvia) and thought his performances were mediocre at best.

Overall, The Invasion is a decent movie to enjoy with a big bowl of popcorn. If you don’t ask too many questions (like how did the whole threat end so suddenly), then it should be a fun time. I give the film 3 stars out of 5.

I’m not much of a comic book fan, so I was a bit worried about how my lack of superhero knowledge would affect my ability to enjoy a complimentary copy of the new Justice League: The New Frontier DVD that I received. From the trailers, I gathered that this film sought to explain how the legendary Justice League crime-fighting team was formed back in the 1950s.

Yes, you read that right: this is an animated “period piece” that takes us back more than half a century to a time when several once-popular superheroes were facing a downturn in public support. Batman saves a child from menacing cult leaders, but is just as scary to the boy as the villains were. Government officials try to nab The Flash to perform invasive tests on him. Wonder Woman becomes an expat.

These and other backstories form the central plot of The New Frontier, a surprisingly complex film that I liked much more than I thought I would.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): At the beginning of the film, we see Batman (voiced by Jeremy Sisto), Superman (Kyle MacLachlan), Wonder Woman (Lucy Lawless), Hal Jordan/Green Lantern (David Boreanaz), the Flash (Neil Patrick Harris), and the Martian Manhunter (Miguel Ferrer) as they all hit rock bottom. For superheroes, this entails losing the trust of the general public and/or authorities, and, in the case of Hal Jordan, going through a period of self-doubt and despair.

In these early stages, the superheroes do not interact with each other very much. Superman and Wonder Woman have a few encounters, as do Batman and the Martian Manhunter, but there’s no real indication that they’re all interested in working with each other.

It’s only later on when Batman and Martian Manhunter stumble across a nefarious group known as The Center. I have to admit that this whole thing was a bit hazy to me, but as far as I can tell, the villains unleashed (or actually were) a flying saucer full of rampaging dinosaurs. When these creatures threaten humankind, the superheroes leap into action to protect civilization.

Once they defeat the enemies, they all agree to pool their talents in the Justice League.

My Reaction: Because the film is so short, several of the story threads receive only cursory treatment. While this didn’t affect the overall quality of the movie, it did lead to some very short scenes and quick jumps to all the different characters. This proved to be pretty confusing for me at first, but I soon got used to what was happening.

As I said before, I don’t read comics at all, so I’m not sure how faithful this adaptation is to the graphic novel. I therefore can only evaluate Justice League: The New Frontier as a standalone film viewed through the eyes of a complete newbie, so you’ll have to keep that in mind here.

Hal Jordan and the Martian Mindhunter received the bulk of the screentime here. I thought Jordan’s story was particularly interesting — simply because I was able to learn so much about the character. From his stint as a pacifist fighter pilot during the Korean War who had to shoot an enemy combatant in the head at close range in order to survive, to his subsequent search for acceptance into an astronaut training program and his developing relationship with Carol Ferris, Hal Jordan was definitely the most three-dimensional of all the characters.

The weakest part of the film for me was the whole idea of The Center. Again, I either completely missed the explanation of what it was or somehow had it go over my head as I was watching, because I couldn’t figure out what was going on with that. It would have been nice to have a more concrete enemy for the superheroes to rally behind, but I guess that wasn’t in the cards.

Overall, however, I have to say that I really enjoyed Justice League: The New Frontier. The voice work was great, and the film moved along at a fast enough pace that it was impossible to become bored. I give this movie 3 stars out of 5 and recommend that you see it!

Although I’m a fan of the Harry Potter book series, I’m not one of those hard-core types who knows and remembers every single detail about every single character. But I do remember general storylines and the overall Harry vs. Voldemort arc, which is sufficient to get me from one book to the next.

The movies, however, are a different problem entirely. I find that the scripts cut out so much material (quite understandably, of course) that I barely know what’s going on in each one. It’s as though the filmmakers are assuming that the people who watch the movies are thoroughly familiar with the novels, so they don’t bother setting up scenes, filling in background information, or providing sufficient details. This is especially true for the fifth installment of the series, so unless you’ve recently read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix or are anything short of the most rabid fan on the planet, I doubt that you’ll be able to figure out exactly what’s going on in this movie.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Order of the Phoenix opens near the end of summer break. Harry (played once again by Daniel Radcliffe) and his cousin Dudley (Harry Melling) are at a park when they’re suddenly attacked by dementors. Harry has no choice but to use magic (despite the fact that he’s underage and in the presence of Muggles). He manages to defeat the dementors, but his deeds don’t go unnoticed. Harry soon receives a letter telling him that he’s been expelled from Hogwarts and must attend a hearing at the Ministry of Magic.

At the hearing, Harry seems surrounded by enemies who would like nothing more than to knock him down a peg or two. Fortunately, Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) shows up unexpectedly and speaks in Harry’s defense, as does Mrs. Figg a neighbor in Little Whinging. Harry is cleared of any wrongdoing and allowed to go back to Hogwarts, where he rejoins Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson).

We’re then introduced to the newest Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton). Umbridge is very loyal to Cornelius Fudge, so everything that happens at Hogwarts immediately gets reported back to the Ministry. In calls, Umbridge refuses to teach her students any magic because she doesn’t believe the rumors that Voldemort is back. Instead, she focuses on textbook lessons and theory, which leaves the students feeling vulnerable.

As a result, Hermione convinces Harry to assume the role of teacher and instruct a select group of classmates in various defense tactics. The group decides to call themselves “Dumbledore’s Army,” and they meet and practice on the sly. Of course, it’s not long before Umbridge finds out about the underground group. She then forces Dumbledore out of power at Hogwarts and assumes temporary control of the school herself.

Meanwhile, Harry has been having nightmares/visions about things that Voldemort is doing to people Harry cares about. One night, he sees that Sirius is in trouble, so he and a group of friends head out to the Hall of Prophecy within the Ministry of Magic. Once there, they discover that the vision was just a ruse used by some of Voldemort’s death eaters to get Harry to hand over a special prophecy. There’s a huge showdown in the Hall, at which point Sirius gets killed by Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter). In addition, Dumbledore and Voldemort going toe to toe. Their battle ends in a draw and Voldemort escapes, but not before being seen by Cornelius Fudge, which of course means Dumbledore and Harry are once again in the clear.

My Reaction: Wow, I thought this film was very disjointed (definitely moreso than any others in the series). I had a lot of trouble following the plot, and it didn’t help that many of the characters that appeared onscreen weren’t even named. It took me the longest time to realize who Mr. Weasley and Lucius Malfoy were, and I didn’t even remember half of the other Hogwarts students (they all look so different from film to film).

Like I said above, I know the movies have to leave a lot of things out, but I was disappointed at what the screenwriter chose not to include in this version. What happened to all the students who were mysteriously getting hurt at Hogwarts? What happened to Quidditch?? What happened to the Weasley twins’ store? What happened to the Pensieve? So many other great scenes were left out too…. what a waste.

Speaking of waste, how about all those characters who appeared for about two minutes? We barely got any Ron, Hermione, Trelawney, Tonks, Hagrid, etc. This film was basically the Harry and Umbridge show.

And Daniel Radcliffe may be a $100 million man thanks to the seven Potter films, but his acting is still god-awful! He has zero range and fails to capture the essence of Harry Potter as written by J.K. Rowling. In the films, he comes off as such a whining, sniveling, self-centered brat that I actually side with Snape — which isn’t how I feel at all when I read the books.

Overall, I can’t imagine how Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix would appeal to a broad audience. Die-hard fans of the series might like it, but I doubt that others will. I give the film 3 stars out of 5, and recommend waiting for it to come out on DVD if you must see it.