
It pains me to say this but I Am Omega will have to be in the list of 'give it a miss' list. To be perfectly honest, it's not as bad as House of Dead. But then again, the “At least they didn't have a zombies against rave moment” comeback is hardly the best defense for any undead movie, is it? Well, let's go on with the review of I Am Omega.
What's the story all about? Perhaps this is the movie's undoing. Someone out there wanted to bank on the whole zombie movement - you know, 28 Days Later, I Am Legend – and decided to regurgitate the same basic concept. It certainly didn't help that the movie came out close to the release of Mr. I-am-a-loner-excepting-my-dog Smith's version of the famous zombie movie. Yes, you guessed it – this movie, like I Am Legend, are both based on Matheson's book. So you get the recluse, Renchard, living in a boarded up house. He's a sad lonely man most of the day ... excepting the bits where he swoops in as a zombie fighting militia-type man. Incidentally, is it just me or does he do a lousy job boarding up the house? Maybe his house looked way too clean to have that 'sanctuary from undead' feel to it.
Anyway, he comes across a web call on his laptop which turns out to be an S.O.S. So now you get the damsel in distress and Mr. Renchard, fancy pants that he is, refuses to step out to help her. Can't say that I blame him; my bets were on her being a zombie mutant who lured people to her den. Yes, that theory didn't pan out; the movie might have had some merit if they went down that route. Back to the story. One thing leads to another and Renchard finds himself, sitting in the back of a van, driving down to save the lady. Did I mention that he had hooked up with two gun-crazy military men? Will they save her, will they all make it out alive? Do we even care? It worried me that no one wondered where Renchard would come back to, once the mission was over. Didn't they just plant a bazooka blast on his little haven from the zombies?
I was quite disappointed with the movie because it did star Mark Dacascos. And they didn't make use of that fancy little star credit! When you get a good actor who knows how to swivel a nunchaku properly, you don't just waste that good fighting potential. Oh no, you go all out for a zombie bloodbath with neck-high kicks and somersaults and building-to-building flying jumps. I would have settled for him dodging and parrying with a mutant gerbil! Anything with a bit more jazz than what they settled for. I mean, don't stretch out the emotional bits; we know you have the acting potential. It's just more worthy of slightly more arty movies. Like ones about a man who talks to dogs or who is into sports but isn't ashamed to cry in a field of daffodils. That's not going to work or win street-cred with zombies.
