This is basically a very shallow movie experience, that never turns into a fun, exciting or tense movie to watch. Not that it's too formulaic or anything but it's doing far too little with its main concept, which is the biggest disappointment about this movie.
Once the movie gets started, it makes you think that it's going to turn into a father/son relationship type of story, in which the two, slightly estranged persons, slowly start to grow toward each other and reconnect, once they spend some more time together and have to face some dangerous situations. However, as it turned out, the movie is hardly focusing on the two together or their relationship, as the movie its story slowly keeps moving along. Emotionally this is a very flat movie, while there obviously were plenty of opportunities and paths this movie could have taken with its story its characters. It instead decides to do absolutely nothing with anything and it rather lets things play out in a very bland and disengaging way.
This all still would have been OK, as long as the movie had some other decent enough things to offer. Something interesting or something exciting or specular, that keeps you glued to your seat. I just don't know what this movie was trying to do or hoping to achieve though. Seems to me that no one was really trying to turn this into a great, original and memorable movie to watch. It's not that anything about this movie is truly awful but it just feels like a very uncreative and lifeless attempt at trying to combine science- fiction with adventure and dramatic elements.
Kind of funny to see how once M. Night Shyamalan's name proudly was put on every poster and he and his name showed up everywhere, once a new movie by him got released. With this movie, his name is hardly mentioned anywhere! How times have changed, in just the course of a couple of of years and a few terrible movies later. Guess that good news for the M. Night Shyamalan haters out there is that his hand is nowhere to be seen in this movie really. Nothing about this movie screams M. Night Shyamalan to you, which should tell you something about its blandness as well.
Visually, it's also nothing more but a just passable enough looking movie. The special effects certainly weren't bad but they most definitely weren't all that great either and the same could be said about the set design. This definitely at no times ever feels or looks like a big budget science-fiction movie, even though its budget apparently was somewhere around $130 million. You would and should expect to get some more excitement and creativity out of a movie, for that kind of money!
And I don't know. I don't think that Jaden Smith is a terrible actor but it's very obvious that the only reason why he is in the business and gets to do movies like this is because he has some well known and respected Hollywood parents. There's certainly nothing about him that seems terribly charismatic and also nothing about his performance indicates that he's one among the most talented young actors in the industry. And that's kind of annoying and distracting about him and his performance in this movie. It also doesn't help that he stars alongside his real life father Will Smith in this, which makes it all the more apparent to you that the only reason why he's in this movie is because of his father. Bad move from all sides!
Really, there is nothing about this movie that makes me hate it but it's a terribly unremarkable one, without any true excitement, creativity, emotions or originality in it.
Seems that this movie is a case of you will either like or you
completely won't. Surpsingly enough I quite liked it! Surprising, since
I'm not even really a big Men in Black fan.
I really do think that the reason why I liked this movie was because it
was being less silly and over-the-top than the previous two
installments. There still is plenty of fun and comedy present
throughout the movie but just not too much of the silly kind. It lets
the movie feel less forced, which all made it more enjoyable to watch.
At least for me it really did!
But having said that, it still is a true Men in Black movie, with some
familiar moments in it, which the fans will surely appreciate. But
really not everything is the same this time around and I applaud the
movie for actually doing some new stuff, even though not everything
works out that well of course.
Even though this movie still has the same style and tone as the
previous two Men in Black movies, some things still have really changed
in this movie. For one, I feel that this movie is less about the aliens
and science-fiction and more about its human characters this time. J
and K are the true center of the movie and there aren't that many
distractions from their stories. Another clear and big difference is
the K character, who this time gets mostly played by Josh Brolin, who
plays the younger version of the character that got and gets played by
Tommy Lee Jones.
The greatest strength of the Men in Black series to me had always been
the chemistry and dynamic between Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. It
made the movies fun and memorable but let me tell you that Tommy Lee
Jones isn't even missed! Tommy Lee Jones still shows up but really for
a surprising short amount of time. But the reason why you won't miss
him from the rest of the movie is because Josh Brolin simply IS Tommy
Lee Jones. He impersonates him perfectly and even looks and sounds like
a young Tommy Lee Jones.
But really, like all Men in Black movies, it remains a far from perfect
one. The one thing that is mostly keeping this movie down is its story.
Not only doesn't it explore its whole time travel concept thoroughly
enough but it also suffers from the exact same thing that all of the
Men in Black movies suffer from; its villainous plot.
Really not all that much wrong with is main villain but his plot is
kind of weak and feels underdeveloped and even somewhat secondary for
the movie. You never get a sense of treat or urgency, simply because
you don't always exactly know what is going on and you basically
already know beforehand what the movie is going to do and heading for
with its main plot line. It's all some typical stuff and the movie
offers very little surprises, even if you don't exactly understand what
its main story is all about.
The movie is nothing too great but it surely is a lot of fun and
entertaining to watch, which does compensates a lot!
This is simply a good quality movie to watch but it nevertheless leaves you hungry for more, since the movie its potential and concept screamed for a better and more exciting execution. After all, this movie is about the last man living in New York City, battling a whole bunch of mutant zombie, while trying to find a cure to the virus that almost entirely wiped out mankind. It's basically its potential that still makes this such a fine movie to watch but the movie however is just not as action packed or tense/scary as you would expect beforehand. It does make the movie perhaps a bit of a missed opportunity and it does has some wasted potential in it, which does give you the feeling that the movie is missing something but it fortunately doesn't make this movie any less pleasant to watch.
First of it all, it's absolutely something great to see New York City entirely being overgrown by plants and wild life. It's above all very good and convincing looking and basically this alone is already enough to make "I Am Legend" a real recommendable movie. They did a real good job with it, although this effort apparently went at the expense of some of the movie its other effects. It's a mixed bag really. The one moment the effects are great looking, while the other its totally apparently too fake looking, especially for 2007 standards really.
It's also really a tough movie for Will Smith, since well basically he has no one to play against, except for a dog. Still he knows to carry the movie brilliantly. Leave it up to Will Smith to make a successful blockbuster, which "I Am Legend" really was at its time of release.
It's story gets obviously a bit restrained because, well how much stuff can you come up with for a movie that is being completely set in a large deserted city. They tried to give the story something extra by putting in an occasional flashback sequence but I don't think they were really in the right places and completely necessary for the movie. It probably would had worked out better if there were more and constant flashback sequences in the movie, completely explaining and showing how mankind got almost completely exterminated and everything involving around that. It still sort of gives you the feeling that they could had worked out the script better, also since the movie its ending really isn't completely satisfying (and yes, if seen both different versions of the ending.)
It's one fine big budget quality movie. It's just missing this tiny bit of extra to make this movie a true tense, action packed or completely memorable movie to watch you'll talk about for years to come. Appereantly a sequel is currently in the making, lets hope it will include this extra elements required to make it a real great movie to watch.
Michael Bay is a much hated director but I don't think that this is right or really justified. Fact simply is that he has changed and upgraded the action genre over the past years. He gave action movies more style and certainly also made them more fun and entertaining to watch. It was never really a genre that was ever being taken serious as a genre that delivered real quality or any new stars. Now days the action genre is definitely taken more serious when comparing it to 15 years ago. If it weren't for him, we would probably now still be stuck with overblown and stupendous Steven Seagal and Chuck Norris type of action movies. The fact that studio's dare to spend lots of money on action movies now days shows how well the genre is doing, by both a wider and new range of public but also certainly the critics. As long as he doesn't attempt to make any "Pearl Harbor" type of movies again, I'm happy to continue watching his movies and will always be eagerly awaiting his next project.
"Bad Boys" is Michael Bay's first movie and its also one of his best. It's fast, stylish, action filled, great characters but above all it's fun!
Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are a golden duo. It's no coincidence that the best moments of the movie features the both of them in those sequences. The two of them are the main reason why the movie is so much fun to watch. The dialog and chemistry between the two are great! This movie also marked the big breakthrough of both actors. Lawrence decided to keep continuing on the comedy-genre road, while Smith by now is fully taken serious as an Hollywood actor, that still is also a much demanded and popular one, who is also perfectly capable of playing serious roles and already is a two time Oscar-nominee.
The two of them will make you almost forget that the movie also has a truly splendid supporting cast, such as Téa Leoni and the always great Joe Pantoliano in a typical Joe Pantoliano-role. The movie its main villains is being played by Tchéky Karyo. I really like this guy and he serious needs to make some more Hollywood-type movies! His character is this movie is perhaps a bit underused and not featured enough but still Karyo adds a lot with his acting to the movie.
The movie is made with lots of style, that gives the movie a real fast and pleasant pace and also uplifts most of the action sequences. You know, this movie really didn't had the highest of budgets but they managed to do an extremely good job with the resources they had. Even though the movie isn't, it still looks and feels like an $100,000,000 production. There is never a slow or dull moment in the movie and it features lots of action, such as gun fights, big explosions and car chases.
You know it's one of those movies in which the story really isn't that important. They basically could had given these guys anything to do and the movie still would had remained just as much fun to watch. It's a movie that even makes you forget that there is a story! You just sit back and let this movie entertain you. It's a movie that never looses any of its power, not even now almost, 15 years later. I loved this movie in 1995 and I'm still loving it now.
The fact that this movie is great looking is also thanks to the editing by genre specialist Christian Wagner, the musical score by Mark Mancina, who was really great and hot in the '90's and the touch of producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, who definitely helped to evolve the action genre.
Highly fun and entertaining! Definitely a recommendable movie!
