I Am Omega

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.

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.

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

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.

Behold the inevitable straight to video incarnation of Matheson's now thrice adapted "I Am Legend" which effectively combines the titles of the two latest ("Omega Man" and "I Am Legend") into one that will fool the unsuspecting movie renter/buyer. As with most knock-offs available from The Asylum, the much labored over box art promises a far more interesting and far more expensive film (it may be a tragedy that these are some of the last examples of good movie-related graphics). But since this is from The Asylum I'll assume you all also know what sort of inexpensive film to expect.

Trashing the straight-to-DVD industry aside, it is hardly the worst movie of its kind (that honor belongs to "Forsaken" with turns the story into a vampire road movie). "I Am Omega" has pretty good location use and competent production value. The editing is fairly stellar and the zombies weren't that laughable (although they were no substitute for the cloaked mutants of "The Omega Man"). And mercifully there are no bad video after effects like a lot of these low budget movies do.

The main problem is the slowness. The flashbacks in this version of the story (which cause the first 30 minutes to drag badly) choose to explain Dacascos' character as a tortured soul rather than unfold the explanations for the world being near over. The decision to use mindless zombies rather than intelligent mutants makes the action a little repetitive and doesn't actually help much with the horror. Red necks and the token female are added to give our heroes someone else to deal with. Director Furst and writer Meed add an explosion count down to move things along as well.

It won't hurt you too much if you keep your expectations low. If you're new to The Asylum, this is perhaps one of the better examples you'll find.