I Am Legend

A well-made horror/sci-fi flick is often, sadly, the exception. Films like Children of Men and The Descent have taken a notoriously bad genre and made it good again, moving past the era of Resident Evils into a realm of well made films that can actually grasp a mainstream audience.
Director Francis Lawrence's I Am Legend follows suit into this new horror/science-fiction genre with a hugely successful opening weekend and box-office estimates of $77 million. The film works on many levels: Will Smith's acting is adequate and the movie delivers action and suspense while maintaining an eerie quietness throughout the entire film.

Will Smith is Dr. Robert Neville, the seemingly sole survivor of a global pandemic, a viral infection that was once thought to cure cancer turned the majority of the world's population into darkseekers -- rabid, zombielike vampires.

This third big-screen adaptation of the '54 novel by Richard Matheson jumps off on a high note visually. Neville's relationship with his dog Sam is endearing, and his occasionally ridiculous banter with mannequins arranged in varying locations around the deserted metropolis is creepy. Lawrence captures the unsettling atmosphere of a post-apocalyptic landscape using silent, panning shots to show how nature is rapidly reclaiming New York City: Waist-high weeds push through deteriorating asphalt, deer leap around rotting, rusted, abandoned traffic jams. Neville suffers through each day by sticking to a tightly controlled schedule, his meticulousness largely responsible for his survival up to this point. The unimaginable loneliness he faces seems as big as the empty city itself.

(Side note: Before we get too deep, though, did anyone else notice during an opening shot, sandwiched between posters for Broadway shows, there was a billboard showing the Batman symbol with the Superman logo superimposed over it and the date, 6.15.2010, etched below both? Could it be a nod to a future Batman versus Superman movie (a la Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns)? I'm guessing it's more likely a possible reference to the upcoming Justice League movie, slated for 2010, which will star both Superman and Batman superhero characters -- but if you've got an inside scoop, feel free to share the knowledge goodies.)

Moving on: After we witness more of Neville's daily routine, and begin to feel a fleeting sense of safety in the OCD rituals that appear to keep him safe, Neville decides to trap a zombie for vaccine tests, triggering a series of events that accelerate the film toward its finish.
Spoilers ahead. (I've realized that I will likely almost always spoil movies, whatever furthers my review.)

Here's what happens: Neville lays a trap to capture a subject for a vaccine survivor, after which he's baited and trapped in a nearly identical manner. He escapes but at the loss of his canine companion, sending Neville on a reckless murder spree, which nearly costs him his life -- before being rescued at the last minute by Anna, another survivor with immunity. His hazy ride back to his place includes glimpses of a big ol' glittery cross hanging from her review mirror. Here's the final act: Neville's vaccine works, but the light-phobic zombies have since either triangulated or sniffed out his house, because once night falls, they're heading his way.

Fight scenes ensue, Neville realizes the vaccine is working on his latest test subject, hands off a vial of cure-containing blood to Anna, shoves her into a bomb shelter of sorts, and faces an onslaught of baddies with a hand grenade. We then see Anna and her son driving through Vermont foliage to a utopian survivors colony. Anna's closing voiceover indicates the titular "legend" is Neville's heroic death to pass on a cure to humankind.

Her brief outro completely ruins the darkly clever play of the book's original plot -- that Neville is a legend, hated and feared, among the vampiric society as a vampire killer, as vampires were once a legend in human folklore. For a moment, the reader is awarded a fresh perspective from a unlikely vantage -- Neville, hunter of vampirekind, is seen as freakish monster, the villain. Granted, in this adaptation, Earth's sole survivor doesn't seem to hunt the ghouls but he apparently capture the zombies for unsuccessful vaccine trials -- did you see that wall of creepy Polaroids?

My only beef with this film is that it could have been a little more and a little better. But overall, for a Will Smith horror film. I Am Legend is more focused on sublte scares rather than cheap thrills, and we love that.

B+