I Am Omega

Starts of nicely. Mark Dacascos kills some wicked zombie thingies and plants some bombs to create havoc. In the mean-time he starts going mad and hears voices after the prolonged period of isolation.

This part of the movie actually works with Dacascos hearing stuff that is not there, talking to himself and doing an adequate acting job to go with it.

Unfortunately it goes downhill when new characters arrive and Mark ends up going on a rescue mission into the heart of the zombie manifestation. Plot-holes start appearing galore and no logic is really given behind the actions of main protagonists.

Not terrible, mildly adequate piece of fun, but to be quickly forgotten.

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.

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 ****

Mark Dacascos stars a lone soldier looking to blow up the city to destroy zombies that are overtaking the world, seems that you can be effected by their blood, but through kickboxing and gunfire Dacascos saves the day and perhaps the last woman on earth. Here's the deal I Am Omega is better than average for an asylum released product. Indeed the thing that is strange about Asylum films is that where as people liked Cannon and Full Moon, this group is universally hated and though their movies sell well the public opinion is of disgust and dislike. I Am Omega actually isn't too awful of a movie. I mean it's still a bad movie but it does have it's moments of goofy fun and with the reuniting cast of Kickboxer 5's Geoff Meed and Mark Dacascos the movie is watchable for fans of Dacascos. I think the main problem with this movie is that we know so little about how the apocalypse came and many loose ends are left at the end. That being said some of the action is okay and the movie's fast pace made it watchable. As for Asylum, I understand why people dislike their films, Transmorphers, Snakes On A Train and so on were all really awful films but I give credit to this one, in that I think fans of Dacascos will enjoy this movie. The bad acting (from everyone but Dacascos), the cheap production values and underwritten script detract the casual viewer but like I said fans of B.movies may find some enjoyment in this.

* * out of 4-(Fair)

And that is saying a lot, as the rest of what I've seen(which is a good twenty plus so far) have been utter rubbish. By all means it is not perfect, starting with a first thirty minutes that drags far too much consequently everything takes too long to get going and ending with a rather dumb finale. The music also could've been less generic, and I wish I could have learned more about the characters in general. However, while they aren't going to win many awards the photography is decent, likewise with the effects and there is some atmospheric scenery. The script may have some moments of repetitiveness but is amusing yet serious on the whole(for The Asylum that is an achievement), and while derivative the story does have some suspenseful moments, some exciting action and the hilarious zombie in the dumpster sequence. The acting is not bad either, Mark Dracascos is actually very good in a role that has allowed him to do much more with what he's got. All in all, surprisingly decent, and by far the best of The Asylum movies I've seen so far. 6/10 Bethany Cox