I Am Legend
Rated: PG-13
It's usually unfair to criticize a film for not being a wholesale recreation of its source material. It's impossible as the film would probably be ten times as long without the necessary editing and condensing of the narrative. But there are cases where the source material represents a superior narrative , and when, for one reason or another, the film decides to drastically alternate from the book, then it's just baffling. I Am Legend, despite solid direction and the standard excellent Will Smith performance, is a movie that will leave readers scratching their heads and non-readers mildly entertained. The post-apocalypse isn't so bad depending on the circumstances. But Robert Neville (Smith) isn't alone. He may be the only human left, but he's surrounded by victims of a mutated virus that didn't kill them but turned them into what are technically vampires (although the film never calls them that) who actually look like angry cancer patients with elastic jaws (the film, sadly, never calls them that either). Neville is safe during the day when he can hunt animals for food or vamps for research, perform experiments to find a cure to the virus, and rent any movie while he converses with mannequins in an attempt to keep his sanity. And up until the third act, the film is basically a tale of survival as the last human being constantly fights both a physical and psychological battle in order to stay alive in an empty world. Between 1999 and 2004, Will Smith was persona-non-grata at the multiplex (although I do like Bad Boys II which came out in 2003). But ever since 2005, he's been reminding us that he's one of the most talented and charming performers around and his work in I Am Legend only continues that success. Smith understands the psychology of Neville and plays him with absolute authenticity. And director Francis Lawrence (Constantine) is smart enough to just stay back and let Smith work his magic. Lawrence is also smart enough to effectively capture our world without us. You've never seen a post-apocalypse quite like this. The eerie quiet only makes the film more intense and thrilling. The only place he really falters is with the vampires. The CG is absolutely atrocious. It makes you wish that Guillermo Del Toro would show up with his super-vampires from Blade II, and say "Here. I think you need these," The film's biggest failing is the script by Mark Petrosevich (responsible for last year's mega-bomb, Poseidon) and Akiva Goldsman, one of the highest paid and least talented screenwriters in the history of cinema. Talking with people who read Richard Matheson's original novel of the same name, there was unanimous agreement that the changes made to the story were awful. And even not reading the book, there are some major cheats. Neville is a soldier and a scientist but only because it gives him weapons training, provides part of the back story about what happened to his family, and allows him to research a cure. If it weren't for Smith and Lawrence, the story would fail in convincing us that Neville is in any real danger or can't cope with his situation. After you see I Am Legend, if you haven't read the book, read it or just a plot synopsis and you'll agree that this film could have been great instead of borderline acceptable. Words by |