fine whine

I really liked The Omega man.

That said, in the first couple minutes I found a (slightly) glaring mistake. In the scene where we look through the windshield at Robert Neville (played by Charlton Heston wearing an outfit from Soylent green) there is visible, in the far background, a moving vehicle. As he is ostensibly the only driver alive in the entire city, and moreover has been for the last two years, this must be a mistake. This is so far the only goof of that kind that I saw. IMDB has a list of many others. I submitted mine to them but worded it badly, so we cannot be sure if it will make it into the pantheon or not (when I reminded them that Ice Age was a "cgi-film" that update took a while) but I can be happy at least to have noticed something that nobody else wrote down. Or something like that.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the movie. I began watching it today in a motor coach (well, that's what they called it; I'd call it a bus) on the return trip from Manhattan to Teterboro, New Jersey. The company sent me to The City today for, well, half an hour to fit four pairs of jeans. Unofficially I helped some of my counterparts in Design with how we work together, and stuff like that, but officially I was only there for that half hour. I wouldn't have minded wandering around the city, but alas, I had work that needed to be done. Perhaps for the next trip. They're sending me up just about every other month anymore, so I'm due for another before too long.

Speaking then of "too long", back to Omega man. It's not too long for the movie, just too long for the drive as I ended up watching some of it in the airport lobby, more on the plane and eventually just finished out the last half at home. The first couple minutes (up until we meet the Family) are the best but it was enjoyable all the way through.

Fortunately I had only the vaguest idea what this movie was about. The DVD back cover, the AMG synopsis*, and even the film's original trailer are misleading or outright wrong (the trailer likely deliberately, the others merely from ignorance or laziness), so it was probably good that I hadn't seen them.

Unlike some of his other SF movies, Omega puts Charlton pretty much in the present (well, the present as it was in the 70s, give or take a year or two) which no doubt saved a bit on production costs (take that, Logan's run). It seems considerably less dated than Soylent green and, being less pretentious, is much more fun. Brighter too, as much more of it takes place outside.

It's just a fun movie to watch.

Near the end of it Jessica asked me, incredulously, "You're really concerned about him, aren't you?" and yes, I guess I was. The movie may be dated, the science inaccurate, the acting too over-the-top, the scenery chewed, and the technical mistakes may be legion, but this is quite an enjoyable movie (and Robert Neville an interesting character), particularly for me, a fan of the 'Heston vs. the world' genre. It's fun enough to toss in a good "Damn, dirty" here and there for laughs.

I want the soundtrack. Too bad the only time it's been cut to disc it was a 3000 piece limited edition. The score definitely adds to the rollicking good time, even if it is very, very reminiscent of the music from The Prisoner at times.

All in all, it's definitely the most enjoyable movie I've watched while riding in an uncomfortable bus seat through New Jersey. Damn dirty bus seat.

It's also among the few movies set in L.A. that I didn't hate.

* I sent AMG my comments as below:

Your synopsis is incorrect. Neville is not guarding the serum; the Family isn't interested in being cured at all. They want to kill him. If he's trying to preserve anything it's his own life and sanity. His grasp on the latter is tenuous at best, but clearly having survived the Family's attacks for two years he's done well so far with the former.

Earlier in the synopsis, calling him the "sole normal survivor" is also somewhat inaccurate, as later mentioned he has lost his "last man on earth status". Perhaps a better way to describe him as the only man vaccinated against the germs? "Sole recipient of the life-saving vaccine", maybe?

Only time will tell if they are interested in being accurate.