Customer Reviews

I Am Omega

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I AM OMEGA is a pale copy of a very original idea first seen in THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, then later in THE OMEGA MAN, then most recently in I AM LEGEND. Now director Geoff FURST tries to recreate the same suspense that Vincent Price so effortlessly showed in the original. Unfortunately, he has only Mark Dacascos to play the lead. Dacascos made his mark years ago in martial arts movies and has since tried to make the switch to straight drama. Based on a steady string of turkeys like this one, he made a poor career choice. Here, he is Renchard, one of the very few survivors of some unknown and unexplained plague that wiped out most of earth's population and has caused the rest to mutate into zombies who seek to feast on human flesh. Renchard shows little of the common sense that Vincent Price showed in THE LAST MAN ON EARTH. Where Price would barricade himself into his Fortress of Solitude, Renchard constructs a home that any third rate burglar could break into. He spends his days aimlessly until he receives an internet video feed from a woman who asks his help. We are not supposed to ask how the internet is still working years after society has collapsed. The plot founders as he meets a pair of ex-soldiers who ask him to help them locate her, when logic dictates that they could have found her on their own. Dacascos has frequent shoot em ups with assorted zombies, but there is no forward motion to the story. There is no climax or falling action: just shoot outs with zombies. You know that an action movie is in trouble when the hero gets upstaged by the Bad Guy. Dacascos simply does not know how to generate audience interest. He might rent THE LAST MAN ON EARTH to see how Vincent Price could force the audience to feel his pain. With Dacascos, we just did not care.

Although this film cannot compare to the likes of "I Am Legend," it is close to being as good as "The Omega Man." I enjoyed watching it and I thought the Zombies were well done. I could pick apart certain things like the two morons that drafted the star into their mission, or the fact that the two leads pick a convertible to flee in, but those things aside, most of the movie was very entertaining. It's true there was very little exposition about how things got the way they are, but there wasn't much in "The Last Man on Earth" either. Besides, we all know the story anyway! This is a typical Saturday night Sci-Fi Channel movie. And as most everyone knows, you have to take most of those movies with a grain of salt. They are still enjoyable though. So is this one.

"I Am Omega" (skip it)....rip off of "I Am Legend" which Will Smith puked out. (REALLLLLY skip it !!)

Read the book frikkin book. "I Am Legend" Richard Matheson.

Well now Asylum's really made a mess of things.

See, it's very easy to brush off Asylum's mockbuster-style movies as drek. This is why it's become something of a hobby for reviewers to bash the studio for whatever it produces. The very nature of these quickly-produced movies guarantees they will be derivative films. And for the most part, this criticism is well-earned.

Until I Am Omega came along. I Am Omega is a mockbuster of Will Smith's I Am Legend (2007), which was a remake of The Omega Man (1971), which was a remake of The Last Man on Earth (1964), which was based on the book I Am Legend by Richard Matheson that also happened to inspired Night of the Living Dead (1968). Nobody is in a position to call I Am Omega derivative.

The fact that I Am Legend inspired Night of the Living Dead is a clue to I Am Omega's interpretation, which replaces the vampire-like mutants with plain old zombies. Director Griff Furst knows how to film a shot, pace a scene, and cut away before it becomes too obvious that there isn't much of a special effects budget.

I Am Omega's leading man is Renchard (Mark Dacascos). Dacascos is a martial artist first, actor second, but he manages to convincingly carry scenes that are essentially one man slowly going insane in the home where his wife and child were eaten by zombies. Renchard's lonely world is rocked when he receives a video chat request from a woman (Jennifer Lee Wiggins) who is the spitting image of his dead wife. Shortly thereafter, two other survivors, Vincent (Geoff Meed) and Mike (Ryan Lloyd) insist Renchard lead the way through the sewers to the missing girl. She carries the cure to the zombie plague within her. There's just one problem - Renchard's been working on setting charges through the city to blow up the "zombie hive" and end their scourge once and for all.

The zombies and the damsel in distress are incidental. The real stars are Meed, who infuses his villain with both insanity and redneck menace. Dacascos works hard to give Renchard a wide range of emotions. He may not be the best actor, but he gives it his all here.

At heart, this is a movie about a guy who fights zombies with nunchucks. But it is also a surprisingly tense, poignant, and occasionally funny film that rises above its B-movie material by embracing it. Post-apocalyptic zombie killing has become so common a trope that nearly any movie treading the same ground borders on parody. But I Am Omega is a homage to the ridiculousness that is a zombie plague. If it occasionally borders on the completely nonsensical, complete with odd time shifts and characters surviving grievous wounds...the zombies are there to remind us of the perils of nitpicking.

And that's too bad for Asylum. It means they can make a decent movie if they so choose. They've just raised a very low bar. Here's hoping we see more I Am Omegas and less Legions of the Dead in the future.

Ok, i bought this on a 4-pack from Wal-mart for $5 and it blows. I guess some MMA fighter wanted to become an actor or something i dunno. Anyhow, i don't even think i finished it because it was so dull and i really didn't care for anyone in it or the effects. Even at it's price of approx $1.25 i just hated it. It wasn't the worst on the 4-pack so that gives it 1 star.

I've seen this movie now about two and a half times. The 1/2 time was when I caught just part of it on tv. I can watch this from start to finish, comparing it with the three other movies that it hopes to join: The Last Man on Earth, The Omega Man and I am Legend.

On a scale of greatness I rank the movies like this:

1) Omega Man------------------ the perennial classic, if not the first.
2) I Am Legend---------------- the big money modern remake of two movies.
3) The Last Man on Earth------ the idea is fleshed out. The movie plods, Vincent Price was no action hero.
4) I Am Omega----------------- modern B Movie homage to three other movies.

I think "I Am Omega" is a good title. I think the lead actor is pretty good, even if his character is a bit wacky. I think the martial arts idea was a good one, even if it wasn't employed well. Mostly the character just practices. As for the "dead or diseased mutants", yes it's actors in zip up suits but it still works. The mutants in this movie are muscular and they look reptilian. These mutants come out in the day which is new to the series of movies. The sun does not burn these mutants. These mutants may or may not need to sleep in the day.

As for the movie, there is little plot. There is a flashback of the main character watching the news, or was it a radio broadcast, but some crisis is being broadcast. This viewer has no real idea why the world went to hell. All this viewer knows is that the main character wants to blow up the city. He travels in the sewer to plant explosives so he can blow up natural gas lines.

The movie is pretty good when "Omega" is trying to escape the city. Omega fights off zombies in the parking garage. The rescued girl takes off; Omega rejoins her. They meet up with another character, a two faced bad guy who shoots the good guy and takes off with the girl. The girl has the cure in her blood. Omega later fights the bad guy, white from blood loss, he stands on what should be broken bones and kills the bad guy. The two escape in a very nice car. Omega does not DIE at the end of this movie, which is NICE for a change. The End.

The movie presents some new elements, zombies in the day, Mr. Omega does not have to DIE at the end of the movie. The ZOMBIES get blown up for a change. Humanity makes progress. This movie really needed a happy ending because it didn't have a whole lot going for it. The lead character Mr. Omega was pretty cool, athletic, quirky, too trusting, too heroic for his own good. And finally, it's strange how the internet still worked after the world went to hell and all. Not sure how it works, but it worked for Omega and the girl with the special blood.

This movie is good for the new ideas alone. I just hope they keep remaking this movie. The movies have never been literal adaptions of the book, but that's ok because the book is little dark, a bit crude/nasty, and a bit dark and dumb.

Saw it in the bargain bin and since I am a zombie officiando, got it. Not bad for an extreemely low budget horror-show!

Yes, this is an Asylum movie. However, it is entertaining and more gritty than many horror movies.

The Good
(1) The female lead is not helpless and is, in fact, more stable and resilient than the hero.
(2) The hero is well-versed in killing zombies. For example, he cleans the blood from himself and his weapons to avoid contamination.
(3) The zombies are real and not CGI.
(4) The fight scenes are fast-paced and well-shot.
(5) Hungry zombies are hungry, crazy humans are crazy, the dead city is dead. The movie is consistent and does not give any unrealistic miracles or surprises.
(6) The DVD is cheap.

The Bad
(1) The movie gives no explanation of how and why the power grid and Internet are still running.
(2) The hero's house does look a bit insecure, but a secure house would look extremely boring.
(3) The DVD has no extras.

"I Am Omega" is not a flashy blockbuster, but it is a good flick.

No, it does not compare with I am legend, but this film is enjoyable none the less and combines 2 very unique genres: Zombies and Martial Arts! What's not to like? Sit back and enjoy...especially the fight scene with the Nonchuks. I'm sure this is a first for zombie flicks!

There is some light baggage associated with I Am Omega (2007), a direct to video feature produced by The Asylum, which was released just prior to the opening of the film I Am Legend (2007), supposedly in an attempt to cash in on the buzz generated by Will Smith's special effects heavy blockbuster. It would be difficult to confuse the two films, as in comparison I Am Omega is a much more modest effort.

Writer Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend, is perhaps his most influential work. The story about a post-apocalyptic world, where all of mankind except for one man, have become vampire like creatures, was first adapted for the screen in The Last Man on Earth (1964) starring Vincent Price, followed by The Omega Man (1971) starring Charlton Heston. Matheson's work is also cited by George Romero as an influence on the zombie genre.

Matheson's novel may not be officially credited as a source, but I Am Omega clearly borrows heavily from it. Renchard (Mark Dacascos) believes he is the last survivor of a terrible virus that has transformed mankind into deadly zombies. Living alone in a rural area, he spends his days killing zombies, and planting explosive charges on natural gas lines, in preparation for blowing up what is left of civilization. Fortunately electricity is still available and somehow the internet is still functional, as one night Renchard is knocked on his ass, when he is contacted online by a woman named Brianna (Jennifer Lee Wiggins).

Via webcam, Brianna says that there are other survivors at a place called Antioch, and that she is trapped in a nearby city. Renchard refuses her request to come and rescue her, but later after two men armed with guns blow up his home, Renchard is coerced into making the trip into the city. Vincent (Jeff Meed), and Mike (Ryan Lloyd), say that they are from Antioch, and need Brianna because she has immunity to the virus. Entering the city through sewer tunnels, Renchard manages to locate Brianna, but must get clear of the city fast, before his timed explosive charges detonate.

The story may be derivative, but it generally moves at a quick pace, and occasionally generates real suspense and tension. The dynamic changes radically after Renchard and Brianna team up, as some of the seriousness slips away, and a little dark humor appears, such as when Renchard battles a bunch of zombies with a set of nunchaku. With a background in martial arts, Mark Dacascos may not be the most versatile actor, but his low key approach works well in a role that requires a lot of physicality, and not much dialog. Jeff Meed is also pretty good, as the ruthless and twisted Vincent.

Utilizing settings like sewers, alleys, parking garages, abandoned buildings, and a junkyard, the film gets things done without spending a lot for sets. The zombies are plentiful and are usually easy kills, but the occasional fight is usually entertaining. CGI type special effects are minimal, and not particularly well done. There are some huge plot holes, and much that does not stand up to serious scrutiny, but if you are not overly critical, I Am Omega is decent B-movie fare, for those interested in post apocalyptical scenarios.