Will Smith delivered once again. I Am Legend looked intriguing from the first trailers and when you saw that Will Smith was in the leading role, well, at least for me, much doubt was cast aside. He can apparently do it all - comedy, action, drama - so why not add suspense to the resume? Exactly. Check that one off of the list.Far removed from his posh throne in Bel Air (yes, I just made that reference), Smith now finds himself as military scientist Robert Neville, apparently the last man on Earth. How did we get there? Well, ironically, and I really appreciated this plot element, the alleged cure for cancer went haywire and killed everyone... except Neville who after some 5 years now spends his solitary days roaming a deserted New York City with his loyal canine companion looking for answers. He spends his night hunkered down in a house-turned panic room, complete with his own medical bat-cave.
Okay, so Neville isn't really the last person on Earth. Those not killed by the so-named "Kryppen virus" have basically become a hybrid of zombie-vampire, feeding on flesh and having to avoid daylight.
Neville hunts them in order to run tests in the lab in order to find a cure. They hunt him in order to eat.
Kudos go out to this film for many different reasons. First, as any good "last man" story does, it spends much time exploring how Neville, deprived of any human interaction, copes and combats the onset of insanity. He talks to his dog, go shopping in the overgrown remains of New York and interacts with manikins that he has cleverly placed in stores and shops, rents movies from the video store and hunts wild game in the streets. However, despite his best efforts, he is slowly slipping into madness as his desperation for a cure grows.
Second, the post-apocalyptic presentation of an abandoned metropolis was very well done. As previously mentioned, wild game roam the overgrown boulevards and thoroughfares. Escaped zoo animals (like lions) also roam the "urban jungle". There seems to be an innate fascination with people to see what would happen to the monuments of our civilization if humans suddenly ceased to exist and we get a fully imagines front row seat in this film.
Finally, the suspense aspect of this film was handled expertly in my opinion. Yes, we get to see the "monsters", but context is always appropriate. They creep out at dusk, loom large but out of sight during the day and they are mostly silent. Silence is frightening. They are also fast (like in 28 Days Later) which makes them all the more formidable that your classic zombie arch-type. But they are also smart. They set traps and stalk. In a "Most Dangerous Game" type of way, that is very frightening!
Two scenes really got to me. The first was when Neville ventures into a pitch-black building searching for his dog. Armed with a flashlight and his rifle, he ventures silently through stairwells and hallways knowing that the infected are hiding all around. When we see a group silently huddled in a corner breathing heavily... creepy. It reminded me of the game Half-Life when the aesthetics simply overwhelm and the panic portion of your brain reminds you that you shouldn't be where you are.
I also very much appreciated the scene where Neville notices that some of his manikins are out of place. He doesn't have to speak for you to understand - manikins don't move on their own. Its just an unsettling notion and it alludes to so much more than what is shown on screen.
After such a strong first two-thirds of the film, it was disappointing to me how the film plays out in the final act. Without spoiling its events, I can say that what transpired seemed to diffuse the panic and desperation that permeated the rest of film. And just when I came to terms with that, the film concluded in the manner that seemed totally unnecessary. It went out not with a bang, but a fizzle. While questions were apparently answered, I left the theater scratching my head. Why? Its a difference of opinion between the creators and the audience I suppose, but it damn ruined the whole experience.
You can't like every film I suppose. And while I don't hate I Am Legend, its simply disappointing that a film that could have been great turned out in the end to only be merely "ok" as a whole. If you haven't seen I Am Legend, its worth viewing. I just hope it doesn't disappoint for you as it did for me. 7/10
1 comment:
I hate to play Devil's Advocate, basically because it's a boring game with a really rigid rule structure. Ha ha. I digress.
No, I haven't actually seen 'I AM LEGEND' nor will I, but before you stop me in haste and say, "Why you scalliwag, what sort of preponderance is this, such ill amity with the world of blockbuster filmery!"
I say "Ahy, I am but a simple beggar on the streets of cinematic enjoyment. Give me passage kind sir and allow me my disposition."
Now to actually say something of substance. I've hated this thing since I saw the trailer. I actually joked about walking out on the trailer during the trailer, realizing myself that I was only HALF joking. I know, having not seen teh film it seems utterly arrogant for me to be so displeased with it but let me have my say and I shall retire.
First of all I own the previous two incarnations of Richard Matheson's 'I Am Legend' which would be Vincent Price's 'The Last Man On Earth' and of course, Charleton Heston's matinee epic 'The Omega Man.' I Like both of these films. They have their cheese factors yes, but they are not only effectively old, but fit the one compelling trait any movie must have to garner my attention...they are entertaining.
There is a scene in the first film where in a flashback, Vincent Price in remembering his wife directly after she was hit with the infection. He wanted to spare her from the military funeral pyre at teh edge of town so he buries her himself. Later that night she returns scratching at the door whispering 'Let me in.' I do not kid when I say that that scene still gives me chills today as it did when I was 15 and saw it for the first time.
Not to say that Will Smith can't be entertaining. If you want blase watered down hip-pop than by all means he's your man. As a leading man he seems to draw in the viewers. Even if his films are giant rolling dung heaps like Independence Day and Wild Wild West (which hurt me because I actually enjoy the original TV series Wild Wild West and it is now forever solied with retarded mechanical spiders and shitty music videos).
Also the vampires or walking dead or infected people, whatever the hell you want to call them look like really bad CG. Aaron saw it and told me that they are actual people, not CG creatures. But the footage I saw from the trailer was very much a CG creature. Like something from Van Helsing more so than anything else. Unless people can now unhinge their jaws.
Finally these things happen every year. Will Smith shows up once a year to appear in what is an obvious box office ploy, tailored to bring in the dough. They're so contrived that their more like polymers than films. Add exactly this much drama, this much explosives, and this much tepid political hindsight.
I'm not saying this isn't enjoyable. I'm sure there are at least one or two single moments in the movie where something effective happens. But the entire package just seems so pre-packaged.
And for that matter I hope I never see another CG laden sword and sandal epic as is the current trend flooding Hollywood (ala 300, Beowulf, In The Name of the King).
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