I Am Omega DVD Review
There’s this company called The Asylum that puts out straight to DVD releases. If you’ve gone to the video store within the last year, you’ve seen their videos. In fact, you’ve probably picked them up and said “What the fuck? Who would make this movie?” The Asylum is responsible for films like AVH: Alien vs. Hunter, Transmorphers, Invasion of the Pod People, Snakes on a Train, The Da Vinci Treasure, Hillside Cannibals, etc.. Anything sound familiar? The Asylum specializes in taking any big budget movie that has any sort of leak about it’s content then, quickly, cheaply and crappily, putting out their own version on DVD before the big budget Hollywood version is even in theaters. These are the people responsible for I Am Omega.
I Am Omega starts out with a woman frantically packing things for her and her son, who seems like he is either heavily sedated or just a bad actor. They get into there car but, oops, she’s forgotten her keys. After sternly expressing to her 10 to 12 year old son to not get out of the car, she goes back inside and is greeted by a zombie/infected/mutant person who attacks and kills her. Again, no real reaction from the son. Cue title. Next you meet Renchard (Mark Dacascos) a high kickin’, gun totin’, machete swingin’, martial artist and all around bad-ass that’s all alone. The zombie/infected/mutants attack his home, raising his alarm system, but he makes light work of them with his sub-machine gun and machete. He goes around planting bombs on telephone poles and killing a few zombie/infected/mutants now and again. He is soon contacted by a lady, Brianna, via the Internet, that says she’s alive in the city. He doesn’t want to help her though, because she reminds him of his wife or something. The next day, two rednecks show up, Mike and Vincent, from some mountain hide out that Brianna mentioned called Antioch. They intercepted the conversation with her and want him to help them rescue her, because she has the cure for the virus. Renchard doesn’t want to go because there’s a hive of the zombie/infected/mutants in the city and he’s been planting bombs all over that are set to go off in a day, which the rednecks know about. He declines to help, so they shoot a rocket at his house and blow it up. So he decided to help them. He’s not pissed about the house or anything, well anything more then having a stern look about him like they just insulted his cooking. So, after contacting Brianna, they go into the city via the sewer system and Vincent dies from a zombie/infected/mutant attack. Mike refuses to leave him and Renchard ends up going into the city alone anyway. After making light work of every zombie in his path, he reaches Brianna and they have a hard time getting out, because the zombie/infected/mutants know they’re in there. What will they do? So, they use the back door. The problem now is that they’ve got to get out of the city because it’s about to blow up in less than 12 hours…the whole city. So, they dodge zombie/infected/mutants to find a stick-shift that they can push start, because the batteries will all be dead. After one close call, they find “their car” according to Brianna, an old automatic convertible. It starts, even though it shouldn’t according to them, and even though it’s completely terrible idea to run from zombies in a convertible, they do. Yes, it bites them in the ass. Brianna stops, even though they’re really pressed for time on account of the bombs and all, and a zombie/infected/mutant attacks them. They end up wrecking the car trying to fight it off. That’s when Mike shows up and shoots Renchard. In a very Scooby-Doo style reveal, Mike says that he’s not from Antioch, he didn’t want the virus cured and he didn’t want things to go back to how they were. He just wanted to kill Brianna and stop the cure. Why he didn’t just leave her to die in the city when Renchard’s bombs went off is a mystery. I guess the story wouldn’t have been as “fun” if he was all logical and shit. So, Renchard has to overcome being shot three times to save the girl and therefore the human race and drive off in a Corvette Stingray after the big junkyard brawl crescendo.
They never really address what happened that Renchard is all alone. The closest thing they do to explaining what happened is a scene that is a direct rip-off of the scene from Omega Man with all the ringing telephones. His radio comes on and there are garbled news casts about infection and viruses and big words like “epidemic” and “contagion”. Renchard throws the radio which keeps going, even though it’s unplugged, until he screams several times “There is no radio! There is…no…radio!” I think the garbled radio broadcasts were supposed to let you know that some kind of epidemic happened, but they’re really distorted and barely manage to get out more than the afore mentioned buzz words. Even after rewinding and listening close, I couldn’t make much out of it. I think that this is done less out of a desire to be coy and artful about it than it is the fact that they couldn’t come up with a plausible storyline to get him to the point that he’s the last man alive. In fact, if you didn’t really know about movies like I Am Legend and Omega Man, you might not actually realize that he’s supposed to be the last man alive or that he’s been alone for a long time. There’s nothing in the story that says how long he’s been alone except that he imagines radios coming on and talks to his mannequin while eating dinner (another Omega Man rip-off) and such.
Another stupid aspect of this movie is that the lead, Renchard, displays his martial arts prowess through practice and actual use against the zombie/infected/mutants. This kills any sort of suspense at all. He never really fights anymore than one zombie at a time, except for a scene at the end. From his display of talent, you could surmise that he could take on 5 or 10 guys and come out swingin’. What is the threat of one or two shambling dead guys? Especially when he has a gun the whole time. The scary thing about zombies is that the average person is unprepared to fight. Where’s the suspense in Ninja vs. Zombie?
I could go on and on about this movie being totally stupid, but all in all it was made only as a bait and switch money making scam. Like the rest of their catalog, this movie is made cheaply so it can be sold to video store chains across the nation and the occasional sucker with too much money on his/her hands. That’s all it is, don’t bother.
I never understood these things - it’s as if they think we wouldn’t catch on that this isn’t I Am Legend with Will Smith?
Worst review ever?
It took me a handful of movie viewings- I was REALLY trying to give them a fair shot and was desperate for genre movies- but I have learned never to watch an Asylum production. You nailed it in the introduction: Asylum is unconcerned with quality or originality. Avoid at all costs.
Asylum now has a new DVD out called MONSTER, which is a total rip-off of Cloverfield.
(I was referring to the review itself, not the actual movie.)
I’d especially like to read your review of this one, Pork-Eater. I’ve looked at your site with one of those translator links, but it really fouls it up. Your translation of your Day of the Dead 2: Contagium review was way better than using the translator site. Do you think you could do that for me? I really want to see what you thought of this movie.
In short: I never spoiled the movie, thus preventing any of my readers from watching it.
I really can’t translate too well, so I won’t be trying that. Maybe I’ll post a English review on ZMDB.org some day.
That’s cool, I just thought that maybe you have some easy way to translate it.
My exact plan was to spoil the movie so no one had to bother watching it. It is my opinion that this movie and every other movie made by The Asylum should never be watched. It is my opinion that The Asylum produces movies, not as art or for any sort of love of the story, but PURELY as an inferior product to be sold for a high return because every corner is cut to make it as cheap as possible, even cutting the corner where they have any sort of good story. I think this company tries to trick people into buying or renting their movies only to leave the audience flat as their films have no substance. I think that if this company could get away with selling empty DVD cases that dissolve when opened, that they would do so rather than go through the hassle of making the crap movie for you to buy in the first place. I think that The Asylum is the worst kind of capitalist entertainment business, BAR NONE!
I hope that everyone in the world would catch on to The Asylum’s game, stop renting their movies, then that the video stores would stop purchasing them and then that The Asylum, it’ s owners and employees would have to go into a new line of work, preferably something soulful, morally upstanding and helpful to the common man which is to say the opposite of what they are doing right now. I know that this review will fall short of these goals, but a boy can dream.
Man, where do you get off deciding for others what they should and shouldn’t watch? What’s with the whole boycott of a company that produces genre B-movies? IMHO that’s not any kind of review work, that’s ideological crap. Sure, I can see where you’re coming from and that you think that you’re just doing your bid in the good fight against dry rot and terrorism (visual, that is), but you’re not doing anyone any good, at least not in my opinion.
I recently reviewed Biker Zombies and you had already spoiled the entire movie for me. Whatever I could have enjoyed it that inferior and badly titled little movie you had effectively stomped on. So don’t spoil any more movies! Please? (Had a review that simply stated that it’s not any kind of a zombie movie, I probably wouldn’t have gotten it in the first place. Unfortunately I read your review when I already had it.)
Regarding this so-called review of I Am Omega, I regard it as unreadable garbage. I’ve already seen the movie en question and a large part of the review is just a walk trough of the entire plot, more or less. In all fairness, you did have one really good point about the movie (one that I wish I had thought of myself) but once again you dwell only on the negative. Like you’re doing someone a huge favor. Please.
And all this is said in an attempt of constructive criticism, and I hope you can appreciate that. Usually your reviews are pretty much top-notch – insightful and balanced – especially when taking in consideration the rapid flow of reviews. (Have you written down a bunch in beforehand, or what?) It’s just these movies that you personally think don’t deserve to exist, at all. I have a very hard time digesting such a stance.
My suggestion is simply that you try to tell your readers, myself included, both why I should and why I shouldn’t see a particular movie. No movie suits everyone and one person can’t like ‘em all. In my opinion a reviewer’s task is to aid the consumer to make the decision whether or not to see a particular movie, not have someone make that decision for them. Can you see my point?
Crap. Since I wasn’t doing anything useful (like reviewing Days of Darkness) I thought that I’d write up a review of I Am Omega for ZMDB.org, but they haven’t gotten around to add the movie in the actual database… Well, I’ll post it here instead. It was simply titled “Uninspired” (the review might be garbage, but at least it’s readable):
This B-grade action movie owns its conception to the large-scale marketing campaign for the movie I Am Legend. Like that movie it’s kind of a remake of the cult-classic The Omega Man, but done without license or due credit. The script is an original though, even if it borrows some eye-catching elements from that movie. The focus here is on martial arts and fast cars – and the zombie-mutant-vampires are just the back story for these elements. There are good amounts of zombie action though, even if there’s never any large number of living dead on screen at one time, which seems like a bit of a letdown considering the cover art. There’s not much gore or nudity neither, nor any (intentional) humor. The acting, by the way, is done with a stiff upper lip.
What makes this a refreshing entry to the zombie movie genre is that it has been made professionally, and not by aspiring amateurs for no budget what so ever. The downside is that the Production Company got what it ordered, and nothing more. There’s no heart, if you will. But make no mistake about it, it’s a low budget movie reminiscent of the B-movies we nowadays consider classics. The good part of the movie is the beginning, since it’s rich in post-apocalyptic atmosphere and simply good clean B-movie fun. But then the rest of the cast is introduced and the story, or lack there of, kicks in, and from there on it’s downhill.
As a movie watcher, I’m incredibly easy to please. It’s really easy for me to just sit back, watch a movie and completely suspend by disbelief. When a movie is so bad that it pisses ME off, I feel compelled to do something about it, to speak my mind.
I’m all for art. You can make art on a low budget or even on a no budget. If a film was made on Hi8 with ketchup as its only special effect, was only 30 minutes long, yet had a good, original story and came from the heart, I wouldn’t knock it. In fact I would exalt it. But, when someone makes a movie as an inferior product SOLELY as a money making scheme disguised as art, I refuse to play coy games and “give it a fair chance”. I Am Omega and The Asylum are not playing fair, so why should I?
The only reason I ever recount an entire story is because it’s the best way to directly expose what a farce it is. If the story is at all worth watching, I won’t bother to ruin it. That is my opinion, I’m reviewing and giving my opinion. If you don’t think my opinion counts, why are you reading my review?
Every time I give a positive review, I get 3 people telling me the movie was crap. Every time I give a negative review, I get you telling me I’m ruining it for people.
I can’t make a decision for anyone. I can’t spoil the movie if my review isn’t read. That’s the way life is. You make your own decisions, you choose to spoil it or not.
By the way, Yes, I have a small stock pile of reviews. If I were to put them all up when I write them, there’d be somewhere around 2 a day, after the initial first day when there would have been 10 in a row. We feel it makes for more interesting reading if they’re spread out. I would have preferred to just have them linked to the movie list, but that’s not how the site works.
Also, I do appreciate the criticism and I do take into consideration the things you say.
Well, what can I say? I read your review because they usually are really good, but if you’re gonna spoil things maybe I shouldn’t? Maybe you could just begin you regurgitation of the entire plot by pointing out that that’s exactly what you’re doing? That you are deliberately spoiling the movie so that the readers won’t feel compelled to check it out for them selves. But it’s your turf and your rules, I’m just standing at the fence throwing zombie droppings. Thanks for listening, nonetheless.
When it comes to B-movies and making money, learn your history. Romero would be the exception because NotLD was a indie movie. Most of what we genre movie nerds refer to as “classics” were made to make a buck. It’s as simple as that. I for one applaud The Asylum for being the punk rock equivalent of the genre movie industry. (Even if I Am Omega is the only movie I’ve seen of theirs. And it wasn’t all that bad, all things considering.) They produce and distribute a professionally crafted product, albeit riding on the major studios marketing, and they are on the top of their game. Quick and dirty like, yeah baby!
I just don’t see the moralities of the movie business. It’s a business, deal with it. But that doesn’t make me root any less for the small indie films. In one post recently someone blamed Brain Damage for putting out a inferior product, and these guys are distributing the mom and pap zombie flicks out there! As you said yourself, you can’t please everyone, can you?
About the stockpiling of reviews: That’s how I do it myself, but I’m about out of materials by now. (I started with some 50 reviews, but I try to have a couple lined up for publication so that I can have some consistency over time. I maybe review one zombie movie a week, tops. That’s all my system can take in at this point. Maybe I overdo my reviews a bit, but that’s what makes it fun for me to write them. Your reviews are the kind I personally like to read – and I do check back as to what you’ve written for insights before finalizing a review.)
I understand that it’s a business, I have no delusions about the fact that movie makers are out to get money. But, you can make money with art. It’s not as simple as making a buck, not all the time. Some people have ideas to make art to support themselves, some people have ideas to rip people off to support themselves.
I think that The Asylum is the antithesis of punk rock, more like disco. They make slick rip-offs of whatever is popular, completely soullessly, just to make a buck.
It’s not that The Asylum makes indie films that I have a beef with. I like indie films. If you look at my reviews you’ll see that it’s not the budget that make me like or dislike a movie. It’s what’s done with the know-how and the story.
I for one applaud The Asylum for being the punk rock equivalent of the genre movie industry.
Wow, this statement was hard to choke down. I agree with Jef’s conclusion that it’s more like disco, trite and disposable. Sure, there’s always the business aspect of film-making, but even major studios occasionally produce a beautiful piece of work. It is always about the money somewhere along the line, but film studios, major and independent, can craft an amazing film, while still making a viable product. Independent studios can also be soulless, money driven machines also. The only difference between major and independent studios are their budget and casting opportunities. Back to Asylum: When Rue Morgue magazine interviewed David Michael Latt, the president of Asylum Home Entertainment, back in their August 2007 issue, he was called him out for being a copy-cat and cashing in on inferior films that copy other people’s/ studio’s work. So it’s not like Jef and I are the only people who have frowned upon Asylum for this game of theirs.
Yeah, I guess you guys are on the money with the disco analogy. I was however referring more to the F-you attitude of The Asylum. My mistake.
If anything, I’d wish they make more zombie movies, because there aren’t enough done by people with both the know how and the money (even if these are low budget entities). Sure, it might not be groundbreaking or inspired stuff, but the people who do them are professionals. Instead of talking about “art” or other pretentiousness I can appreciate the skill and hard work involved. There’s a distinction between the money grabbing studio and the movie maker who has to work for a living. They can’t all be out doing “art” for arts own sake, you know.
About the copycat aspect of The Asylum’s operation. There are always trends than studios follow and by doing that they cash in on another studios marketing. The Lord of the Rings movies is a good example. It created a fantasy trend that wasn’t possible without the marketing done by New Line Cinema to launch their enterprise. The only difference as I can see, is that The Asylum would have come out with at movie with a similar title (did they, by the way?).
In short: I’m not going to boycott anybody for making zombie movies, good or bad, whatever they title them.
Well, I take my disdain of the film industry to that level too. I see the trends in Hollywood and I hate them. When one studio makes a disastrous meteor movie, the other studios gotta do it too. I think that’s really crappy. I believe that The Asylum is that idea taken as far as it can go and over the cliff. I don’t expect movies to just be art for art’s sake, but they can’t be just for money’s sake either. I think there needs to be a balance.
Nice review, Pork-Eater!