Mud Songs

The holy grail of production design and cinematography, Blade Runner is magnificent, brilliant and spectacular — to look at. The most compelling scenes are the moments when you can see the replicants thinking about their humanity and their existence. If more of the film had lived up to the potential in those scenes, Blade Runner would be a great film, not just a great-looking film. Still, if you haven’t seen it for a while, it’s worth revisiting. It’s never looked better than it does now.

I Am Legend is one of the best science fiction movies of recent years, which unfortunately isn’t saying much, but at least it’s watchable. Will Smith does a good job playing the last man on earth and you feel for the guy. He has to fight some vampire-werewolf people from time to time, which isn’t as stupid as you might think (the CGI isn’t always the best, but it holds up well enough). Most science fiction movies begin with great potential and then get stupid and change genres for the last act (e.g., Sunshine). I Am Legend, for the most part, manages to dodge that bullet. I can imagine a more accomplished science fiction director like Ridley Scott really digging his teeth into this one. There’s loss potential here. But I enjoyed it.