Film Review: I Am Legend

By: DThompson | in: Movies |

I am Legend

Hollywood loves a plague. The basic idea of a disease of one sort or another wiping out the human race has been done and re-done so many times it’s hard to keep track of the original use of the concept.
If I were to bet on it though, my money would be on the 1964 Vincent Price film The Last Man On Earth, based on Richard Matheson’s novella “I Am Legend”. Legend was remade in 1971, with sci-fi overtones, as the Charlton Heston vehicle The Omega Man. Now the world finds itself with yet another version, finally titled I Am Legend. This current film features Will Smith as scientist Robert Neville, battling a vampiric plague caused by a cancer cure gone horribly wrong.

While Last Man was a grim descent into madness plagued by Night Of The Living Dead-like vampires, Omega Man was more of a slam bang action film. I Am Legend wants it both ways and gets it, starting off with a galvanizing James Bond-ish race through the deserted streets of New York as Neville, like a modern cowboy, chases down a herd of deer in a bright red Mustang.
New York is now a desolate yet strangely peaceful wasteland populated only by Neville, his dog, Sam, a number of strategically placed manequins and about a million very nasty plague victims. That Neville, only half joking, is treating the manequins as people shows how far along the road to madness three years of solitude has taken him.

I am Legend

As the film progresses Neville’s mental state becomes ever more unbalanced. Ostensibly, the monstrous victims of the genetically modified cancer cure are the danger, but equally as menacing is loneliness.
Will Smith is quite good in what is essentially a one man show, running the range from quivvering fear to dark humor to virtual catatonia. The movie itself alternates between flashbacks of the noisy, packed streets of the city as inhabitants flee the plague and Neville’s current sad and isolated existence. The trailer would have you believe this is a terrifying thrill ride, and it is, but it’s also a singularly melancholic story as well. A sparser, grimmer version of the tale than either previous film, I Am Legend is nevertheless an engaging view. The monsters are truly monstrous, the action is exciting and when the film reaches for pathos, it achieves its goal. The book’s more cerebral conceit, that in a world of vampires the vampire killer is the true monster (and thus the “legend” of the title) is still ignored.
No man is an island and Neville, assailed from within and without provides us with a portrait of a man adrift in a scientifically created hell. But, it’s an engagingly interesting hell and Robert Neville is a fascinating character. Despite the sadness of his quixotic mission of redemption, audiences will no doubt enjoy going along..

VERDICT: Grim yet strangely entertaining.

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Posted on December 26, 2007

Comments

5 Responses to “Film Review: I Am Legend”

Lee H on December 26th, 2007 11:54 am

I love Will Smith the actor but I hate will Smith the rapper. I not a big fan of action or sci-fi films but if Will is in them I tend to enjoy them.

DThompson on December 26th, 2007 3:21 pm

If you love Will Smith the actor I think it’s safe to say you’ll enjoy this movie, it’s definitely not “Fresh Prince of Transylvania”.

kendall on December 26th, 2007 5:25 pm

hahaha. Fresh Prince of Transylvania! HAHAHA

Charbarred on December 26th, 2007 6:28 pm

Yeah, he’s become such a great actor that you completely forget Will Smith the rapper.
Saying that, “He’s the DJ I’m the Rapper” was one of the first CD’s I’ve ever bought…