This entry was posted on Friday, December 14th, 2007 at 5:43 pm and is filed under Action, Horror, I, Movie Reviews, NEW ON VIDEO, Thriller/Mystery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Director: Francis Lawrence
Starring: Will Smith, Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan
Director Francis Lawrence, and the rest of the production team for ‘I Am Legend’, have pulled off quite an incredible coupe by setting their film in a deserted New York City that is being slowly reclaimed by nature. The work they have done with this is truly impressive. Equal to this feat of determination and logistics, is Will Smith’s stand out performance as a lonely survivor in a deserted city landscape. The story is well-written, with loads of suspense and action, but doesn’t quite manage to transcend its weak zombie movie genre. If you stop and think, at all, you will quickly find yourself saying, ‘Wait a minute’. Without giving away any plot twists, let me ask you this. Who has been feeding those fish for three years?
Will Smith is a military doctor/researcher named Robert Neville, who finds himself, apparently, as the sole survivor in New York City, where he wanders about, with his dog, Sam, entertaining himself by day, before locking himself down in a fortress home by night. The genesis of this situation, which sprung from a cancer cure, is revealed slowly through flashbacks. The reason for his cautious behavior after dark, however, is revealed much sooner, and it is the familiar movie world problem of infected humans, who are reduced to snarling, single-minded predators with absolutely no instinct for self preservation. I could go on with other issues in that same vein, but I’ll leave it to you to pick out your own favorite plot holes.
Imagine Castaway, set in a deserted NYC and then cross it with 28 Days, and you will have a pretty good idea of what to expect here. If the whole thing seems familiar, that’s because it’s based on the same book (I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson) as the 1971 Charleton Heston film, Omega Man. Once you get past the logic flaws, Will Smith’s acting and the cool, deserted New York City setting combine with taut tension and explosive action, to make this one worth seeing.
