Todd’s Movie Blog

I know a couple of posts ago I had said I would not being seeing I Am Legend this weekend, but was going to see What Would Jesus Buy. The unpredictable Ohio weather put the kibosh on that idea. A huge winter storm moving in made going to the nearest art theater, in Cleveland, a dicey proposition, so I opted instead to go to the local multiplex only ten minutes away and see Will Smith in the early morning before the storm hit. Going by the title you know I didn’t come away with a good impression. I should say right off the bat that the first half is good solid sci-fi/action/horror entertainment that you come to expect from this kind of film. Will Smith is a scientist who discovers a cure for cancer that ends up turning everyone into zombie/vampires except himself. During the day he visits a DVD store, hunts for food (the running gag of him constantly trying to catch a deer goes on way too long), and holding conversations with his dog Sam and various store mannequins he has set up around town. He spends his nights locked up in his apartment working on a cure as the zombie/vampires try to get in to eat him. All well and good, you have a little action, some humor and a main character dealing with lots and lots of guilt. Then in the second half he meets two young survivors who are heading for a colony they have heard is located in Vermont and the characters start debating whether it is real or not, whether there is hope for humanity, and God’s will. All of which leads to a heavily contrived ending to explain the title that is both sad and uplifting at the same time, ripped off whole cloth from The Omega Man. My problem with this you can’t have it both ways. You can’t make a thought provoking film with a down beat ending and shoehorn in a mindless action film everything is okay wrap up right next to it. You have to go with one or the other.