Just got back from seeing I Am Legend. I am very entertained and satisfied by it! Yeah, it’s not perfect, but I did enjoy it. OK, before I go into a little mini-review, I’d just like to point out that I saw previews for Prince Caspian and The Dark Knight for the first time; I’m totally psyched to see those. Now back to my opinions of I Am Legend… spoilers ahead, a-duh.

The last human on earth… that must suck really hard.

The basic premise for I Am Legend is that the main character, Robert Neville, (played by one of my favorite actors, Will Smith) is supposed to be the last human on earth. A virus was engineered three years previously to be the hailed cure for cancer. However, it becomes air-born and kills 90% of people on the planet. Fewer than one percent are immune, and the remaining are mutated… but more on those later. Neville is unaffected by the virus and we are thrown immediately into the picture where he survives all alone.

The first third of the movie probably intrigued me the most. We follow Neville and his dog companion, Sam, as they live day to day in deserted New York City. The sight of the city is amazing… to see such a bustling city dilapidated and empty. Seeing how he pretty much has access to anything everything in the city, from food and firearms to sports cars and gasoline, made me think at first that it might be cool to just do anything you wanted; but then I realized being the only human being on the planet must take its toll. In fact, I was almost reminded of Cast Away… just as Tom Hanks’ character was isolated on the island but had to be resourceful to survive, Neville was pretty much isolated, alone on the planet and still had to adapt to live. Neville even went as far as to create ‘people’ out of mannequins and pretending that they are alive, talking and interacting with them. Exploring that part of the story was pretty much the high point for me.

But then we are introduced to the living infected. I admit that first seeing the hive in the dark was pretty intense, but I soon felt that they weren’t that vicious. I think it was the fact that they were computer generated… I thought at first they were like zombies, but they don’t decay, rather they are vulnerable to the sunlight. I guess they are like a zombie-vampire hybrid. Interesting concept, but I think that they could have taken it a bit further in the horror element.

The movie, I think, takes an immediate nose-dive when Anna and Ethan are introduced. I loved the concept of “the last man on earth,” and the point when the possibility of more humans being alive kind of kills it. I admit, it’s interesting to see Neville’s reaction to first human contact in what might have been years, but I’d like to explore the setting of last remaining human more. Hopefully another movie could do that… maybe be a bit more gritty and dim. I Am Legend ends with a bit of hope: humanity will rebuild and come back from the brink of extinction with the cure to the virus discovered by Neville. And I can appreciate that kind of ending with the kind of drama that goes throughout the whole film, but I’d like to see something along the lines of a Dawn of the Dead type of movie where the apocalyptic life doesn’t have a ray of hope for a happy ending but rather just continues to strive to survive.

And as a side-note, the movie is set in the future, and the studio must have seen it fit to tease me with appearances in the film by a billboard of a Batman-Superman movie and a poster of a Teen Titans movie. Rumors were abound that Warner Bros. had contemplated a Batman-Superman team up film, but I think they are now exploring a Justice League film. It’d be totally awesome to have the Christian Bale and Brandon Routh reprise their roles together… it would really feel like a real team-up. The billboard looked awesome though, like they put a lot of thought and work into it…

Some minor things too to mention:
- What’s up with the vinegar? I don’t think they explained why he pours it on his jacket and on the doorsteps to his home. Maybe I missed it…
- Sooo… did his family die in the helicopter? They cut away before I could see…
- The whole Shrek scene… pretty cool. I like Shrek, too.
- Seriously, why didn’t that girl just say hello back to him?! God!

So overall, I enjoyed I Am Legend. Chalk up another favorite film featuring Will Smith. It has some really great scenes, but I think the concept that drew me in originally was spoiled. I’d see it again probably. I’d definitely get it on DVD. 8 out of 10.

Tags: I Am Legend, Movies, Will Smith