I Am Legend (2007)
Movie Title: I Am Legend (2007)
Actors: Will Smith, Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Salli Richardson, Darrell Foster
Director: Francis Lawrence
Language: English
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Run Time: 101 min
Movie Description
Will Smith stars in the third adaptation of Richard Matheson’s classic science-fiction novel I Am Legend about a lone human survivor in a post-apocalyptic world dominated by vampires. This new version somewhat alters Matheson’s central hook, i.e., the startling idea that an ordinary man, Robert Neville, spends his days roaming a desolated city and his nights in a house sealed off from longtime neighbors who have become bloodsucking fiends. In the new film, Smith’s Neville is a military scientist charged with finding a cure for a virus that turns people into crazed, hairless, flesh-eating zombies. Failing to complete his work in time–and after enduring a personal tragedy–Neville finds himself alone in Manhattan, his natural immunity to the virus keeping him alive. With an expressive German shepherd his only companion, Neville is a hunter-gatherer in sunlight, hiding from the mutants at night in his Washington Square town house and methodically conducting experiments in his ceaseless quest to conquer the disease.
The film’s first half almost suggests that I Am Legend could be one of the finest movies of 2007. Director Francis Lawrence’s extraordinary, computer-generated images of a decaying New York City reveal weeds growing through the cracks of familiar streets that are also overrun by deer and prowled by lions. It’s impossible not to be fascinated by such a realistically altered cityscape, reverting to a natural environment, through which Smith moves with a weirdly enviable freedom, offset by his wariness over whatever is lurking in the dark of bank vaults and parking garages. Lawrence and screenwriters Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman wisely build suspense by withholding images of the monsters until a peak scene of horror well into the story. It must be said, however, that the computer-enhanced creatures don’t look half as interesting as they might have had the filmmakers adhered more to Matheson’s vampire-nightmare vision.
I Am Legend is ultimately noteworthy for Smith’s remarkable performance as a man so lonely he talks to mannequins in the shops he frequents. The film’s latter half goes too far in portraying Smith’s Neville as a pitiable man with a messianic mission, but this lapse into bathos does nothing to take away from the visual and dramatic accomplishments of its first hour. –Tom Keogh
Movie Review
I notice I was in a mellow mood when I watched this movie in a Singapore cinema. I focus entirely on the good sides of this entertaining movie and ignore other aspects. The good sides: Girls get to watch Will Smith a lot (which made my daughters happy, hence me). The variation on Robinson Crusoe is fascinating, even if Friday doesn’t make it as long as Crusoe. Optimal use is made of Bob Marley’s music. Suspense is very strong in some scenes, mainly the hunt into the dark building (a variation on Silence of the Lambs, with different, though similar monsters). An interesting variation on the ‘apocalypse caused by science’ theme. A marvellous opening scene with Thompson, happily and modestly admitting that she conquered cancer. One does not need to be anti-science to appreciate this gem. The monsters, well, they were also there, as was the future, in the person of the girl from Sao Paolo who never heard of Bob Marley. –By H. Schneider (Puxi)
Plot Synopsis
The movie begins with a newspaper interview with Dr. Kripper (Emma Thompson) who is speaking about the her scientific breakthrough. She has taken the Measles virus and altered it at a genetic level so that it attacks only cancerous cells. The treatment has proven 100% effective in over 10,109 clinical trials. The film then cuts to three years later and we see that New York is deserted. Grass is breaking through the concrete, cars are rusting in the streets, and entire buildings are covered in titanic sheets of plastic with Biohazard signs plastered all over them.
Dr. Robert Neville (Will Smith) is driving down one of the overgrown streets in a Ford Mustang when a herd of deer suddenly dart out from behind a building. He guns the engine and chases them through the streets, singling one out until it leaps over a blockade with dozens of cars blocking the road. Neville screeches to a halt, looks at Sam, his German shepherd companion, and steps out with his M4 rifle to track down the deer. Silently making his way through the tall grass growing between the cars, he spots the deers tail and takes aim just as it goes around a bus and under an overpass. Cursing, Neville lowers his rifle and begins to walk around the other side, Read More…
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