I Am Legend
Hollywood loves the end of the world. 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 almost impossible to keep track of the original use of the concept.
Although if I were asked where this particular concept originated, 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 edition 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 guess what, it 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 mannequins and about a million vampire plague victims. As the film progresses, Neville’s daily lifestyle begins to unfold. Wake up after dreaming about the past, to have Sam clean his chin, and his alarm clock go off. Work out and go down into the Laboratory to see if he’s managed to cure the vampiric zombies. Oh, I forgot to mention, Nevile is a virologist who has made it his duty to find a cure and save humanity once and for all. (sound familiar?). After finishing up for the day, he heads over to South Street Sea Port, when the sun peaks, in hopes of meeting any survivors which may have heard his AM broadcast, signaling the docks as a meeting point.
When the sun starts to set, his wristwatch sounds, indicating it’s time to get home, to his save haven. Upon reaching his home, he uses chemicals to cover his scent, so the creatures don’t know where he lives. Once inside, all windows and doors are bolted. Then, it’s a waiting game. Neville hears the screams, and decay of the vampiric zombies that prowl the earth at night, slowly eating into his sanity.
As the film progresses Neville’s mental state becomes even more unbalanced. Ostensibly, the monstrous victims of the genetically modified cancer cure as the physical danger, but ever taunting is the psychological torture that out hero undergoes constantly.
Will Smith is quite good in what essentially a one-man show, running the range from quivering 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 withing and without, provides us with a portrait of a man adrift in a scientifically created hell. However, it’s an engagingly interesting hell and Robert Neville is a fascinating character. In spite of the sadness of his quixotic mission of redemption, audiences will no doubt enjoy watching Smith in the fantastically played out psychological, sci-fi, horror mix film.
+ IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480249/
