Carnage To Catharsis The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 Is A Dismal End!

The Good: Moments of theme and performance, Special effects
The Bad: Unlikable or under-developed characters, Plot oscillates between predictable and undeveloped, Resolution
The Basics: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 puts to rest a series that managed to get produced at the right time . . . but will not satisfy serious film buffs.


When it comes to The Hunger Games, the truth is, the franchise did not particularly grab me. I was pretty much repulsed by The Hunger Games (reviewed here!) and while I liked Catching Fire (reviewed here!) well-enough, Mockingjay - Part 1 (reviewed here!) pretty much lost me. I just don't care about Panem. So, I was in no rush to run out and see The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2. But, with it being a holiday and me being on the road alone, I figured it was time to pay my Hunger Games dues and take in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2.

Right off the bat, I've not read the books upon which the films in The Hunger Games Saga were based. This is a pure review of the film and the movie confirmed what I suspected the moment I saw The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1: Part 1 should have ended the moment the rescued Peeta Mellark reached up and began struggling Katniss Everdeen. Instead, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 begins with the potential of a young woman literally finding her voice and then rising up to raise a rebellion; instead, it is a movie about a mediocre woman using violence to solve her problems. Katniss Everdeen is supposed to be the hero fans root for, but Finnick made more substantive leaps in exposing the corruptions of President Snow, tyrant leader of Panem, in the prior film. Katniss does not follow Finnick's example in using logic, truth, and helping to turn the people of Panem against the corrupt President; as in the prior films, she mopes around until she shoots her problems away with her bow.

Having rescued Peeta from the Capitol, the rebels in District 13 are horrified to see how he has been brainwashed into an animal, intent on killing Katniss. Katniss, however, fights to keep Peeta alive and she is eager to end the conflict with Snow by getting support from other Districts. Her first attempt to shoot a propaganda film amid revolutionaries and refugees ends up with her getting shot. With the rebellion apparently crumbling, President Snow starts to weed out those close to him who might be political rivals, using poison like Finnick previously revealed. Despite being loathed now by Peeta, Katniss tries desperately to save him and be close to him, even though he is still violent from the venom that was used on him by the Capitol.

After Annie and Finnick marry, Katniss joins the squad being sent into the Capitol to disarm the traps that Snow has set. En route to Snow's mansion, Katniss and her companions are beset by creatures, weapons, and obstacles - much like the victors of the Hunger Games encountered during the games - and from Peeta's inability to control himself or overcome his programming. But as the resistance nears victory, Katniss gets information that suggests to her that Snow might not be the only villain in Panem and when someone close to Katniss is murdered as part of political theater, Katniss decides she alone must end it.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 failed to do what I've been waiting for in all of the films in The Hunger Games Saga: it did not make me care about the characters or Panem. Yes, oppression is absolutely terrible, but Panem in the films of The Hunger Games is a fiefdom of Districts serving the Capitol at a cost of two lives per District per year (one for the victor's district). The system has been working for 74 years at the beginning of The Hunger Games and, substantively, it is analogous to an unrestrained Capitalist system with an authoritarian government, so it was a hard dystopia for me to get into or care about (we have it as bad in real life; we just get to go to the movies and get a new smartphone once in a while). The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 fails to make the viewer invested in the world of Panem.

Even worse, in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 it is almost impossible to care what becomes of the film's protagonist. There is no allegory in the film, so Katniss heals until she acts, mopes until she rages and the journey is unsatisfying . . . especially when one considers it without the "wow" factor of the special visual effects. Add to that, the love triangle where Katniss's heart is pulled by both Gale and Peeta is expanded in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2, which feels like a time drain in an already packed film. The love triangle could have been left out and perhaps a scene could have been put in where Katniss sees evidence of the film's other primary villain, as opposed to simply taking other people's words for it.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 is notable in its underuse of performers Jena Malone (who, frankly, I can always stand to see more of in films) and Stanley Tucci. Elizabeth Banks plays Effie Trinket with less of an annoying quality than in the prior installment, so at least her talents are not as wasted this time around.

Ultimately, though, the time is wasted. Who lives? Who dies? It doesn't matter, so long as there's an Evangelical-friendly scene to cap off the movie with utter denial of the initial characterizations of the characters the corniest summing up of the events of the Saga. That, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 absolutely has.

For other films currently in theaters, please check out my reviews of:
SPECTRE
Bleeding Heart
Hotel Transylvania 2

3.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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An Illustration Of Consequences For Those Who Do Not Understand Nuance: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1.

The Good: Themes, Decent use of the expanded cast
The Bad: Unlikable characters, Plot is more set-up than substance
The Basics: More a tease for the final installment, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 is thematically heavy-handed and the film is surprisingly easy to skip!


Despite the fact that my review of Catching Fire (that’s here!) remains one of my most-read reviews, I am not what one might call an enthusiast of The Hunger Games franchise. In fact, when the cinematic rendition of The Hunger Games (reviewed here!) was released, I argued that even reviewing it was utterly pointless; the novel series had such a huge fanbase and Lionsgate had thrown so much advertising at the undecided masses that it was going to be a huge phenomenon regardless of critical analysis. At this point, there is little purpose to bothering to review The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, either, except for those who might have soured on the franchise from the first two films and need a reason to go and see it or skip it.

My vote is actually in the “skip it” category. Not since 28 Weeks Later (reviewed here!) has there been such an unnecessary sequel. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 is entirely a transition movie and given where it begins (desperately hinging on seeing Catching Fire) and where is ends (with, presumably*, the initiating incident which will finally crystallize the budding rebellion in the world of Panem), it seems like it would be virtually impossible to watch The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 when it is released next year and not get everything that happens in Part 1 from context clues. Seriously; if anyone out there is on the fence and willing to try, I’d love to be proven right on this one! The reason for this is simple: despite the influx of characters into the universe of The Hunger Games, the ones who survive The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 are only incrementally moved in this film. And, on the plot front, what events do occur in the film have ramifications that will undeniably be self-evident in the second part . . . and the rest is just a dressed up version of what we saw in Catching Fire. [* I wrote “presumably” because I have not read the books, so perhaps the final film will take an abrupt right turn from the direction it has been going for the past three films, though I doubt it!]

The 28 Weeks Later analogy is not an inapt one; where 28 Days Later described the horror of uninfected people fleeing crowds of infected individuals and left it up to the viewer, like the protagonist of the film, to grasp the level of horror and change in the world, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 illustrates over and over and over again what Catching Fire began and showed quite enough of. In Catching Fire, President Snow’s tenuous grasp over the 12 Districts of Panem is slipping and he sends in faceless soldiers into the Districts to do things like beat insubordinate old men to death and shoot rebels and menace crowds with firearms just off camera from televised events. We get it; people are rebelling, Snow’s forces are pretty mercilessly killing them. When that, and the 75th Annual Hunger Games, fail utterly, Snow uses his military to bomb Katniss Everdeen’s home district right off the map. We get it.

So, where Catching Fire unfortunately repeated the plot conceit of The Hunger Games for its latter half, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 browbeats the audience with repetition of Snow’s desperate attempts to retain power and control over the districts that pay tribute to his Capital. Where Catching Fire had an old man getting his head blown off, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 ups the stakes with a line-up of children. Snow, apparently, is not the only one too stupid to realize that if fear failed to keep people in line, more fear won’t stop the rebellious forced; director Francis Lawrence and the screenwriters assume the audience needs to see more and more violent incidents to understand that.

We don’t.

Following her arrival in the subterranean District 13, Katniss Everdeen learns that the world of Panem is on the edge of full-scale revolution. Despite District 12 being obliterated, Katniss’s losses are remarkably small; she is reunited with her sister and Gale in District 13. There, she meets District 13’s “President,” Alma Coin. Coin and Plutarch Heavensbee want Katniss to become the symbolic leader of the revolution, a figurehead that will galvanize their movement. But Katniss is frustrated and determined that Peeta be rescued from the clutches of President Snow. When Peeta, who was captured after the arena was destroyed during the climax of the last Hunger Games, is shown on broadcasts as enemies to the Rebellion, Katniss is convinced that Peeta has been brainwashed and must be saved.

In exchange for committing forces to a rescue operation, Katniss allows Coin and Heavensbee to use her for their own propaganda machine. The result is a conflict that does not climax, a character whose heroic journey is stalled, and a film that seems much more like filler than flash.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 is thematically unsettling in that protagonist Katniss Everdeen, who worked very hard to resist being a part of Snow’s propaganda machine in the prior installment, is willing to be a part of Coin’s media blitz against Snow in this one. Either way, she’s just a tool and like Snow menacing her family in exchange for her campaigning and illustrating love for Peeta, Coin withholds resources to rescue Peeta until Katniss commits to help her cause.

Unfortunately, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 flops even more in-context of the larger Saga . . . for anyone who has a memory. Katniss Everdeen didn’t love Peeta in The Hunger Games, she did not particularly love him in Catching Fire (though she was protective of him). In Mockingjay – Part 1, Katniss is more obsessed with saving Peeta without having an emotional connection to him to back that up. Katniss seemed happiest in District 12 when she was with Gale and now she and Gale could be together; from the moment Peeta first appears in Mockingjay – Part 1, the damage he can do is done. He is Snow’s mouthpiece. For a character who has no genuine love for him, assassination should bear the same emotional effect as rescue (a loss to a rebel is a loss to a rebel; how one commits resources says a lot). In the simplest possible terms, Katniss feels more like she is going through the motions with pushing for a rescue attempt as opposed to a character who has a heartfelt love and genuinely likes the guy she is concerned with.

To that end, Jennifer Lawrence does what she can with the role that spends much more time being passive and lackluster than truly compelling. Katniss Everdeen is barely the hero in the process of becoming, as opposed to the “political pawn who realizes she’s actually a rook;” Lawrence has very little she can do with such a limited character.

The rest of the cast is as good as the writing allows them to be. Josh Hutcherson may be bland as a love interest, but as a brainwashed figurehead delivering Snow’s talking points, he seems to have found his niche. Jenna Malone’s time on screen makes no real use of the actress's talents; her character is an afterthought and her appearance is little more than a cameo near the climax of the film. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Woody Harrelson, and Donald Sutherland each return to their roles flawlessly. Julianne Moore, Mahershala Ali, and Robert Knepper join the cast and integrate well. Moore is given the most screentime of the new arrivals and she is exactly what she needs to be in order to sell the character of President Coin. She is dignified enough to be realistically presidential and she delivers the character’s strategies with a sense of pragmatism that makes her a good embodiment of a rebel. While Jeffrey Wright is simply continuing his role of Beetee, he is a pleasure to watch; the part of the intellectual with a grasp of both physical and political sciences suits him well.

Ultimately, though, none of the performances are so superlative that they become the “must see” embodiment of any of the actors’ talents, the characters are not drastically transformed in a way that the next film would not have to say (yet again) what happened to them and the themes are nothing new to the audience of the first two The Hunger Games. The result is a film that may be very safely skipped.

For other films currently in theaters, please check out my reviews of:
To Write Love On Her Arms
The Seventh Son
Paddington
Inherent Vice
Selma
Still Alice
Predestination
The Interview
The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies
Expelled
Annie
Comet
Horrible Bosses 2
10,000 Days
Interstellar

4/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Why Catching Fire Is Worth Watching (When The Hunger Games . . . Not So Much)!

The Good: Good story, Decent use of themes, Generally good acting, Decent effects
The Bad: Characters still fall a little flat
The Basics: Rectifying many of the issues that made The Hunger Games not worth watching, Catching Fire becomes a Fall film worth tuning in to!


Lionsgate has made a huge mistake. I write that as someone who is not a fan of The Hunger Games Trilogy, despite the fact that my wife has now read all three books. I was not impressed by The Hunger Games (reviewed here!) and I have noticed that the merchandising for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire has been pretty anemic. In fact, outside the limited edition Hallmark Mockingjay ornament (reviewed here!), Catching Fire has not had a big pre-release push on the merchandising front. There seems to be a good reason for that: Catching Fire is a far more cerebral film than its predecessor and a far better one.

That leads me to my opening assertion: Lionsgate has made a terrible mistake. I was not a fan of The Hunger Games but I get how Lionsgate felt compelled to make the movie and make it first. Viewers needed to be introduced to the universe of The Hunger Games and understand the brutal methods of power and control utilized by the Presidents of Panem, including the current one, Snow. But when my wife finished reading the books, she noted that Catching Fire was the longest of the books and she complained that nothing much happened in Mockingjay. The mistake Lionsgate made: cramming everything from the second book into a single movie. Instead of breaking the final book into two films, the second book has a very natural break in it that could have made it a far better movie. This is a film with a lot crammed into it.

As it stands, though, Catching Fire is ambitious, generally smart, and well-presented, living up beyond the potential of The Hunger Games to make for a vastly superior film. Unlike the first film, which essentially made the audience into the citizens of the corrupt Panem, rooting for Katniss Everdeen to slay her child opponents in a bizarrely orchestrated bloodsport, Catching Fire exposes the movement throughout Panem that is leading to a genuine revolution. For half the film, the consequences of the corruption embodied by President Snow is explored and the viewer is given a fairly decent (and entertaining) civics lesson on the power of the individual and the methods employed by corrupt individuals in the highest levels of government. The allegory is strong and worthwhile and it makes most of Catching Fire worthwhile. The latter half of Catching Fire develops nicely as a story of sacrifice and rebellion realized; a story that would have carried more weight if some of the characters involved in making the sacrifices (and orchestrating the rebellion) were characters the viewer cared about more.

Catching Fire picks up where The Hunger Games left off. Having been triumphant dual survivors of the 74th Annual Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark have become symbols of defiance throughout the Districts of Panem. Katniss realizes this while on tour in District 11, where the child, Rue, she worked to protect in the Hunger Games hailed from. Having seen Katniss defy the rulemakers in the Hunger Games, by threatening to kill herself with Peeta at the climax and rob the government of a victor to trot around, Katniss has inspired the rebels scattered throughout Panem to openly engage the government forces. When Katniss learns that the previously-destroyed District 13 may not be the abandoned wasteland the government claims it is, she becomes even more sympathetic to the anti-government forces.

To stop the growing insurrection and to psychologically devastate the Districts of Panem, President Snow uses the 75th Annual Hunger Games as a way to dispatch of the troublesome Katniss, Peeta, and other prior victors at the Hunger Games who have symbolic value to the Districts and the Rebellion. Traumatized from the moment she is forced back into the games, Katniss works to keep Peeta alive. But soon, other contestants in the Games begin to ally themselves with Katniss and it becomes clear that Snow may have botched his attempt to stop the rebellion.

Right off the bat, it is worth noting that President Snow is one of the lesser villains of modern cinema. How a man who expects to rule with an iron fist using fear and ritualized demoralization does not see the potential of prior victors slugging it out as a bad idea seems particularly lame. For sure, Snow is getting some bad advice from the new Game’s Master, Plutarch Heavensbee. Heavensbee’s role in Catching Fire might go over the head of Katniss, but it is unlikely to stymie fans of science fiction or political dramas. While there is almost always a Brutus in a political drama, it weakens the Caesar of the work for them to be so blind to it. As a result, President Snow’s miscalculations in pitting former victors against each other (which basically puts the people who have been most traumatized by the system in one place for days on end and seems like it would do little outside inspire further acts of televised resistance) weaken the President of Panem.

For her part, Katniss Everdeen comes across as less whiny in Catching Fire than she did in The Hunger Games. A lot of the credit for this has to go to Jennifer Lawrence. Lawrence portrays Katniss as a young woman who is ignorant of political intrigue, as opposed to just stupid. Despite having the tactical wherewithal at the climax of The Hunger Games to extort the Capitol for her and Peeta’s lives, Katniss is still just an inexperienced young woman whose tactical abilities largely come from hunting. While that is an asset inside the games, it does not realistically prepare her for clandestine approaches from rebels and Lawrence walks the fine line that makes Katniss seem reasonably ignorant as opposed to laughably daft.

Unfortunately, Josh Hutcherson is still thoroughly white bread as Peeta Mellark and Liam Hemsworth’s Gale is presented with so little substance as to not make him a viable romantic interest for Katniss. Hutcherson’s presence in the movie is undermined by the far more dynamic Sam Claflin as Finnick. Finnick seems instantly more interesting than Peeta and where Peeta bumbles through the film, Finnick actually is presented with all the seeds of being an able leader. Claflin plays Finnick well and the onscreen magnetism he possesses serves the character well. Also noteworthy of the Catching Fire cast is Jena Malone. Malone manages to make the acerbic Johanna Mason seem unlike any of the meek roles she has played in the past and she plays the rougher edges in Mason without any sort of hints at her Sucker Punch (reviewed here!) character.

Before Catching Fire degenerates into the choreographed blood sport – though this time there is so much more going on inside the arena than simple survival that the audience does not fall into the trap of being like the citizens of Panem and there is little entertainment in the deaths in the arena – the film manages to captivate. As the story of sacrifice and rebellion grows, the viewer actually begins to care what might come of Panem, if not Katniss.

Catching Fire is a strong middle act and the struggle of the twelve (or thirteen) Districts against the oppressive Capitol seems crammed into a film that moves along at a decent pace, but glosses over some of the subtlety that might have made Panem one of the more interesting dystopian realms. As it stands, Catching Fire might have a problematic antagonist and an ally hampered by lackluster acting, but it progresses The Hunger Games Saga in a direction that is enough to make viewers want to see how the Rebellion fares. What might have made the Saga, and this installment, more compelling is a fundamentally more interesting protagonist. Jennifer Lawrence does what she can with Katniss Everdeen, but for the bulk of Catching Fire, viewers are rooting for a pawn and that’s not an enviable place for a storyteller to hinge their success, nor an audience to hang its hopes.

For other action/science fiction second act films, please check out my reviews of:
The Empire Strikes Back
The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug
Thor: The Dark World

7.5/10

For other film reviews, please visit my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Theological Action-Adventure Meets Its Star With Constantine!

The Good: Decent characters, Good plot, Decent DVD extras, Decent effects
The Bad: Some of the acting does not hold up
The Basics: While John Constantine's time on Earth runs out, he works to vanquish demons back to hell and uncover the mystery of what truly happened to Isabel Dobson.


Have you ever watched a movie and thought, "I wonder why that didn't do better at the box office?" Too often lately, I've seen flicks where my reaction is "I can't believe that grossed as much as it did!" Then I sat down and watched Constantine on DVD and my thought was that of all of the film's based on comics or graphic novels lately, this one was possibly the best and most interesting of the bunch. And you know, it kept me interested the entire film, which is pretty much a rarity these days. Here's what you can expect from Constantine:

John Constantine, a chain-smoking exorcist who has the ability to see the shadow realm of demons that coincides with the known real world, is drawn into a case where a police detective's identical twin has committed suicide, much to Angela's complete disbelief. Constantine begins to doubt that everything is as it seems as the forces of Heaven and Hell converge on Earth in such a way that indicates that the fragile separation between the realms is breaking down.

Constantine soon finds himself working to protect Angela from one of the prime servants of Hell, Balthazar, who is bent on capturing her. Problematic as it is, Constantine finds his clock ticking as God prepares to claim his soul and he finds himself trying to outrun the angel Gabriel and his coming mortality.

Constantine is a pretty pure action-adventure with a little mystery-horror twist to it. The film takes a few minutes to clearly establish the tenants of the universe it embodies, with the clear understanding that there is a heaven, hell, and Earth and John Constantine is able to see the forces of both sides on Earth. But more than that, it becomes clear that Constantine is part of a war between the forces of heaven and hell where he is a tool and the rules are pretty simple: Demons cannot appear on Earth in their natural form. Apparently the rules of engagement allow for the forces of hell to possess any life on Earth, but not appear directly.

The film begins to get real interesting when it becomes clear that that rule is being broken by Satan.

The whole conflict about whether or not Isabel was killed or killed herself becomes a decent incentive to involve Constantine and Angela and the search for the truth is both a good plot point and an opportunity to explore the characters. And they are reasonably dark characters. John Constantine is a man who has been to hell and returned and while he now works for the forces of good, he lives with the knowledge that he is soon to die and that he will not be going to Heaven when he dies.

Constantine might sound like a lot of religious hoopla and no one is more wary of the advance of the Evangelical Right into the mainstream (check out my review of The Sinner's Guide To The Evangelical Right here!), but it's basically an action-adventure/horror film using religious characters. Think of it as Van Helsing with characters from the Bible as opposed to Bram Stoker. And unlike some of the films made and marketed toward the Evangelical Right, Constantine is pretty strongly edgy and dark as opposed to uplifting and preachy.

John Constantine is a pretty clear anti-hero, he's not looking out for his own best interest and he's not looking for redemption because he knows he's not getting it. Instead, he accepts his place as a tool in the grand scheme of things and he works for Gabriel and god only because he is compelled to, not out of some sense of nobility or desire for grace. Constantine is played by Keanu Reeves with the same sense of destiny and quality as he played Neo in The Matrix (reviewed here!). In other words, Reeves isn't asked to play above his ability here and instead, the role seems tailor made to his understated ability to deliver lines and his ability to do things like run, play opposite CG villains and shoot a gun. Reeves is fine as the title character and he leads the cast well.

In fact, if anyone disappoints, it might be - sadly - Tilda Swinton as Gabriel. Swinton is such a great performer that one instantly notices her nuances. As a result, it is Swinton who ruins one of the bigger surprises of the film with her portrayal of Gabriel. Swinton tips her hand as to her character's conflict and it's unfortunate because had she held out longer for the surprise, the character's motivations could have been seen as truly shocking.

Either way, this is a dark film loaded with special effects and one of the nicer bonus features on the DVD deals with the special effects and the making of the movie. The behind-the-scenes featurette is worthwhile and entertaining and adds value to the disc.

At the end of the day, it's entertaining and pretty well made. The film holds up over multiple viewings and it's worthy of the attention of anyone who likes a good, dark action-adventure story or who has been waiting around for a horror film that is interesting. Much more on the side of action-adventure/detective, Constantine is well directed by Francis Lawrence who has a good sense of how to keep the convoluted plot moving along at a decent pace.

For other works with Rachel Weisz, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Definitely, Maybe
The Fountain
Envy
The Mummy Returns
The Mummy

7.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Post-Apocalyptic Adventures In Continuity Work: I Am Legend Lives Up To The Hype!

The Good: Acting, Direction, General plot, Most of the character aspects, DVD bonus features
The Bad: Pacing, CG effects
The Basics: Will Smith sells life after a viral apocalypse as a scientist, guilt-ridden, who is working to cure anyone who might be left in I Am Legend.


These days, who doesn't love a good post-apocalyptic action-adventure story? Sometimes it feels like we might be living on the brink of our own human-made calamity, so there's still entertainment in the escapism of watching the last people on Earth struggling to survive. I run hot and cold on apocalyptic visions for two reasons: 1. So many of them have been done and 2. Far too often the established parameters of them become defied in the process of the work. Sure, there's not much new in the "everyone gets killed, save our protagonist" genre, there's not much one can do about that. But the latter issue, well, that takes skill to get around. For a long while, I sang the praises of 28 Days Later (reviewed here!) and despite how the virulent plague there is suddenly ignored for plot-convenient battles dripping in blood, I do love that film. The only other vision of the end of the world I have thoroughly enjoyed, even though it systematically dismantle its own principles is the first season of Jeremiah.

At least, that is how I felt until I saw I Am Legend. I Am Legend, another film that proves Will Smith still has serious opening ability for theatrical releases and now available on DVD, presents a fairly stark vision of the near-future, where humanity's tampering with genetics for noble purpose has ended badly for the vast majority of people.

Robert Neville and his dog, Sam, live in New York City, or rather what is left of it. Overgrown after three years of decay, New York is the starting point from which a genetically engineered virus managed to wipe out most of the population of Earth. Dr. Alice Krippin genetically engineered a cure for cancer, a cure that went amuck and slaughtered most of the population of the world when it became airborne. Neville, immune to the airborne strain, was seen as a potential savior and remained in the City with Sam, who is vulnerable to bites, but like most animals is immune to the airborne variety. Neville patrols New York during the day scavenging food, hunting deer with his SUV, and broadcasting a message to potential survivors who might be passing by. He also uses his own blood to experiment with potential serums on infected rats in an attempt to design a cure for the plague. When one of the vaccines illustrates promise, Neville is compelled to hunt for one of the infected humans still living in the City, which sets off a war between Neville and a mutant that may end humanity's last chance at survival.

I Am Legend is clever in that it takes a bit of time to build up to where it is going. Neville is established as a fairly cautious, guilt-ridden character who patrols a seeming wasteland with little practical purpose. The writers of the film wisely hold the creepy card for as long as possible before revealing what it is that keeps Neville inside at night. Calling Neville the last man on Earth is not entirely true as there are Infected; mutants who are not killed by the virus, but rather rendered into psychotic, brain dead, light sensitive zombies that roam the City at night with their equally twisted dogs.

And here are the big problems with I Am Legend; it takes a while to build up, Neville is incredibly intelligent except when it comes to seeing what it in front of him and the principles of this vision are kept with a sense of literalism that is entirely ridiculous. In turn, the pacing of I Am Legend is a bit off. There is a long build up where Neville is alone, caught with his inner demons, talking to himself and suffering through recordings of broadcasts from the outbreak. But as soon as the first mutant is shown, the film rapidly becomes a much faster paced film obsessed with movement and entirely lacking in the quiet moments that define the eerie world Neville is trapped in for the first third. Honestly, Will Smith could have carried the film just fine with Sam without any mutants, I think.

The reason for that is that Neville is a remarkably strong character as defined by Will Smith and his somewhat twitchy dialogue to himself. And while I might be all alone with this theory, Neville's character falls down once he encounters the den of mutants because the otherwise incredibly intelligent Neville draws the absolute opposite conclusion from the data given to him. When he captures a mutant to test his new serum on (very cleverly, by the way), he notes that the mutants have degraded to the point that there is nothing human left in them. Unfortunately, this is the opposite of the logic of what he is witnessing as he notes that one of the mutants almost risked getting burned by coming out into the light when he captured his test subject. Here's the thing: Neville captures a woman, the mutant in the doorway willing to risk life, limb and all is male and it's not much of a leap to suggest that Neville captured his mate and he's reacting thus with a strong possessive urge that is both primal and very human.

That said, the film's premise is that the mutants will generally avoid the sunlight because their skin literally burns in it. This works almost in every context, but it becomes a parody of itself when Neville and Sam find themselves trapped near dusk near a den of mutants and their dogs. Despite having an inch of sunlight between them, the dogs will not break the beam of light and this seems ridiculous. The pain of passing through such a beam would be negligible and for animals that have gone feral, this is pretty much a joke.

Outside those three complaints, I Am Legend is a clear winner. The film is smart and has a wonderful sense of mood, despite the pacing issues. Neville is characterized wonderfully through his actions as meticulous and deeply wounded by his inability to save humanity before the bulk of it was wiped out or transformed. He clings to a strange sense of idealism and his sense of both hope and survival are balanced well to create a character who is a logical savior. There is a surprising amount of character in Neville, characterized through his interactions with mannequins, talking to Sam and talking to himself. He is a man guided by a scientific method, but there is also a very real messiah complex at work in his insistence that he is both the alpha and the omega of the plague.

Will Smith portrays Neville brilliantly and with a slightly twitchy and nervous quality whenever Neville is outside his laboratory or home that prove his acting ability. He interacts with his costar, a dog named Kona, with a sense of professionalism that he appears to have for every human costar I've ever seen him interact with. Smith has a wonderful sense of body language; standing tall and straight in his lab, hunching nervously in the video store when he attempts to flirt with a mannequin, and moving with the grace of a professional soldier when hunting. Smith completely sells the reality of the world through his performance and had there been no other people in the film, Smith still could have carried the film on his own.

The thing is, there are other people, mostly in the form of radically altered (by CG effects) mutants. The computer-generated mutants are fine in the slow scenes, though even there many of them are lit inappropriately. In the action sequences, many of the mutants are downright terrible and the effects become disappointing as the film degenerates into a battle between Neville and the leader of the mutants.

But just as CG effects do not sway me to recommend a film, this time they will not put me off an otherwise wonderful vision of life after the end of the world. I Am Legend is creepy, exciting and at times truly heartwrenching. It is a stark reality that appears on DVD with a decent number of behind-the-scenes featurettes to make it worthwhile. With an entire bonus disc that features animated adventures, bits on viral outbreaks and an alternate theatrical version that provides a different ending, which is intriguing.

Anyone who likes science fiction or a decent psychological drama is likely to enjoy I Am Legend. If you have a low tolerance for films that require patience, though, this might not be the film for you. As someone who likes smart, end-of-the-world films, it's an easy recommend on both the viewing and the buy.

For other visions of the end of the world, please check out my reviews of:
The Walking Dead - Season 1
Zombieland
Twelve Monkeys

8/10

For other film reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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