I Am Omega

I Am Omega (2007)

** (out of 4)

The Asylum hits back with their own cash-in on Will Smith's I AM LEGEND. This adaptation of the Richard Matheson story features Mark Dacascos as Renchard, the last man on Earth who has had this title since an unknown thing happened which caused everyone to die (the cause is never made clear in the film). Thanks to the internet that is still working for some reason, Renchard manages to find out about a woman living nearby and she just happens to know where a colony of survivors is. First the two must destroy the zombie creatures that are stalking them. Anyone who knows anything about The Asylum knows that the company truly has turned out some of the worst movies in recent memory and it's rather shocking how good I AM OMEGA turned out. It's far from being a good movie and it's certainly not in the same league as the Smith version (or the Price and Heston ones) but at the same time it really does seem that the filmmaker's hearts were in the right place. For the most part the subject matter is taken very serious and we're given a pretty good look at someone who is all alone in the world. I thought the early scenes building up the situation of the lead character were handled very well and I thought that there was some nice atmosphere to be found as well. Another good thing were the actual monsters as they looked very good and I thought they made for great villains. They seem like a cross between your typical zombies and the monsters from THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE but either way they look fine. The performances are decent but they're really not asked to do too much. The main problems with the film is that we've simply seen this story so many times before and nothing new is done with it here. I'd also say that some of the CGI gunshot wounds look very bad and at 90-minutes things start to drag towards the end. Still, I AM OMEGA is a masterpiece when you compare it to other films from the studio but this still remains only for those interested in seeing every version of the original story.

I'd heard about this one, another apocalyptic combo takeoff on I AM LEGEND and THE OMEGA MAN, that was independently produced on a low budget and released direct to DVD on the Asylum label. It's about a man who is one of the few survivors on Earth after some sort of catastrophe (it's never made clear) has turned people into grotesque and marauding zombies. He meets up with a couple of other guys who need his aid in reaching one known female survivor somewhere who may have the cure within her own blood.

There is nothing that's new or unique here, but it functions very much like a "LAST MAN ON EARTH meets DAWN OF THE DEAD", and is more of a zombie film than anything else. On that level I think it succeeds pretty well in spite of the lack of funds... the ghoul makeup and special effects are actually quite good, and there is a decent amount of one-on-one threat and action with the creatures (who are played by real people). In fact, while watching this I thought to myself how much better this aspect of the movie played out than ANY of the silly and needlessly cartoon-like "dwellers" of Will Smith's mega-budgeted I AM LEGEND (which wasn't released until after this, also in 2007) ! Sometimes less is more in this regard, and a tiny budget requires more realism. Sure, there are many curious mistakes (how do computers still work, and why are there lights everywhere at night, for instance?) but I got the impression that hearts were in the right place and the filmmakers did the best with what they had. **1/2 out of ****

Yet another remake of I AM LEGEND has Mark Dascasvcos as one of very few humans left on our planet after some major catastrophe. Everyone else is now a flesh-eating zombie. Mark D. plays a former military type who is planting bombs around the city to take out as many zombies as possible. He also shoots and beats to death as many as his schedule allows. In the middle of everything, a distress call comes in and he finds a lone survivor in the heart of the city, a young female. He reluctantly embarks on a mission to save her, in the company of two other ex-military guys who show up seemingly out of the blue. Lots of decent fight scenes, as befitting the film's legendary kickboxing star. OMEGA is moody, well photographed and has a great first half that loses some steam in the second. The gore is cartoonish, and the goofy-looking zombies are clearly played by stuntmen in rubber monster suits. No harm done, assuming you can accept the lead in this umpteenth version of the Richard Matheson story being a kickboxing machine.

This isn't a perfect movie by any stretch of the imagination but it's not bad and definitely a lot better than old jug ears effort. Here's why I'd rather watch this a million times than watch Will Smith doing his pitiful Shrek/nervous breakdown scene one more time.

The people in this film aren't computer generated and though they don't look great they don't look like computer game bad guys skating over the floor. This is a definite improvement. In the odd scene they actually look quite good.

It leaves the more philosophical aspects of the book and two films alone. Fair enough, it's not like we haven't seen it done and rather it was absent than messed up and garbled like Legend.

There's a small amount of chemistry between the characters, in Legend there's all the spark of a pair of rubber gloves rubbing together. The characters are all pretty simple but they do have a personality of sorts, again a step up from Legend.

Lastly the main character doesn't really express any emotions which is fair enough, I prefer that to the two faces Will Smith can pull off. You can accept a man who is totally robbed of emotion but it's harder to accept a man that only has two facial expressions and flicks through them and gets his movie described by some genius on here as "an acting buffet."

It's not a perfect movie, some bits are a bit weak but I genuinely enjoyed it so give it a chance you might like it too. For a cheap rip off it's surprisingly entertaining.

If you're unfamiliar with the force of nature that is Asylum, get acquainted fast. But maybe not with this film, for reasons I'll explain in a sec. First let me dedicate 1 paragraph to what Asylum is.

Asylum Films is a low budget indie film studio whose original purpose in life was to make cheap knockoffs of major Hollywood blockbusters. Early Asylum films like "The Da Vinci Treasure", "Transmorphers" and "I Am Omega" were churned out on the heels of their more famous archetypes and named very similarly so that inattentive dads & moms might grab them off the video shelf by accident, much to the family's viewing displeasure. It was a brilliant idea, and now 20 years after the company started, they're churning faster than a bunch of Keebler elves on crack. In recent years, Asylum has blossomed into producing epically awesome original stories such as the SHARKNADO series and the MEGA(animal#1) VS. GIANT(animal#2) series, and this is where Asylum really found its footing in hilarious tongue-in-cheek spoofery of bad action flicks.

Which leads me to the reason why I wouldn't recommend "I Am Omega" as your first Asylum experience (although I do recommend it). It's not bad enough to be awesome. Instead it's just a straightforward enjoyable, brainless action flick loosely ripped off of "I Am Legend" and I.A.L.'s predecessor "The Omega Man". Note: I did catch a few cheeky nods to the originals, such as a framed picture of Will Smith's german shepherd in one scene. But for the most part, this film isn't quite the campy spoof that the later Asylum films would give us.

As a standalone action flick about post apocalyptic zombies, this film holds its own. The lead actor is thoroughly likeable (with a striking resemblance to the late great Brandon Lee from "The Crow"), and he has some awesome martial arts moves in the fight scenes. He also has 1 or 2 surprisingly powerful dramatic moments with Oscar worthy acting, such as the scene where he goes out into the desert by himself and loses his mind. His overall portrayal of the "last man on earth" is really well done, especially regarding his social awkwardness and anxiety when he does meet other humans.

In other words, if I didn't know up front that this was an Asylum flick, I would be pretty impressed at its value as a regular action story.

Check it out, but like I said, it might be better if you start elsewhere with your Asylum journey (and quite a rabbit hole it is... hey, they should do "Alice In Wonderworld"). Maybe jump right in with Sharknado, then come back here and I think you'll appreciate this flick even more.