I AM LEGEND
January 7th 2008 02:00
I AM LEGEND (2007)
Starring: Will Smith, Alice Braga, Dash Mihok.
Directed By: Francis Lawrence
Based on the Novel by: Richard Matheson.
First things first: is the movie anything like the book? The short answer is no. If you are expecting the first faithful adaptation of Matheson’s novel, then you have come to the wrong film. Despite being the third film adaptation of I Am Legend, and sharing the same title, this movie is actually much closer to 1971’s film adaptation, called The Omega Man, and starring Charlton Heston (only without the silver afros). Both movies even use the same tag line “The last man on Earth is not alone.” Credit for the screenplay for I Am Legend is also partly attributed to the two screenplay writers for The Omega Man. So, no, not so much a faithful adaptation of the book. It is a pity, because the book actually has a very interesting reason as to why the protagonist is a “legend,” which is very different to the reason given in the Will Smith film.
The plot of the film is this: a scientist (in a cameo by Emma Thompson) modifies a virus so that it will attack and eliminate cancer in the body. At first it works, but then the victims begin to die, and those that don’t become pigment free, hairless, violent drinkers of blood who die when exposed to UV light: Dark Seekers. Will Smith is Robert Neville, the last human left alive in New York, on Manhattan Island, and as far as he knows, the world. Also a scientist, he vows to find a cure for the virus, and restore the blood drinkers to their human form, and thus restore humanity. His only companion is a dog, Samantha.
The film begins in 2009, when the virus is unleashed, and then jumps forward three years to 2012, although it does continue to flashback to the outbreak of the virus for the first part of the film. The film opens strongly, with haunting scenes of an empty and overgrown New York, with buildings covered in plastic in a vain attempt to quarantine the virus, and streets filled with empty cars. Watch out for some in-house Warner Bros. advertising with a billboard on one of the buildings showing a Batman silhouette with a Superman logo over the top of it – does Christian Bale know?
The early scenes where Will Smith is alone is some of his best acting work, and the best scenes in the film. They show his daily routine as he tries to hunt deer in the roads (how did the herd get onto the island?), goes out onto the pier at midday to see if anyone has responded to his radio broadcast for anyone left alive to meet him there, checks the rats he has experimented on see if any of his cures have worked, and then locks down his house before sunset, with steel shutters on the windows. As he tries to sleep, we can hear inhuman howls and shrieks coming from the darkness outside. Chilling stuff. The scene where Robert goes to the video store (he is up to watching movies starting with the letter “G”) is one of the funniest moments in the film. His relationship with the dog is also incredibly touching and genuine, which makes it even sadder when tragedy strikes later on.
Then the Dark Seekers are introduced. At first it is promising, as Robert is forced to follow his dog into a dark building during the day in one of the tensest scenes since the carpark building scene in The Dawn of the Dead remake. The glimpses of the Dark Seekers are creepy, with their pale, wasted frames, and Nosferatu like appearance. However, as the film progresses, they become decidedly less creepy. Dash Mihok plays what is credited as the “Alpha Male” of the Dark Seekers, who progressively becomes Neville’s nemesis. Unfortunately the filmmakers seemed to think it necessary to make him do an inhuman howl where he has to open his mouth unnaturally, CGI wide, in the style of The Mummy Returns, in. Every. Single. Scene. He. Is. In. It becomes pretty tedious after a while.
In addition, despite the Dark Seekers exhibiting strategy and cunning in their combat with Robert, and that the Alpha Male’s motivation in going after him seems to be in order to get back the female that Robert has kidnapped to test his latest cure, Neville never acknowledges that they are more than bloodthirsty monsters. The ending is also extremely unsubtly Pro-Christian, but Will Smith does deliver a good speech about Bob Marley.
Altogether a tense, action packed entry into the sci-fi genre. However the third act is much less satisfying than the first two. If only they had put more of the book into the film. The question remains, is anyone out there willing to faithfully adapt the book for the big screen. Fourth time lucky for Matheson’s I Am Legend? Someone? Anyone?
Starring: Will Smith, Alice Braga, Dash Mihok.
Directed By: Francis Lawrence
Based on the Novel by: Richard Matheson.
First things first: is the movie anything like the book? The short answer is no. If you are expecting the first faithful adaptation of Matheson’s novel, then you have come to the wrong film. Despite being the third film adaptation of I Am Legend, and sharing the same title, this movie is actually much closer to 1971’s film adaptation, called The Omega Man, and starring Charlton Heston (only without the silver afros). Both movies even use the same tag line “The last man on Earth is not alone.” Credit for the screenplay for I Am Legend is also partly attributed to the two screenplay writers for The Omega Man. So, no, not so much a faithful adaptation of the book. It is a pity, because the book actually has a very interesting reason as to why the protagonist is a “legend,” which is very different to the reason given in the Will Smith film.
The plot of the film is this: a scientist (in a cameo by Emma Thompson) modifies a virus so that it will attack and eliminate cancer in the body. At first it works, but then the victims begin to die, and those that don’t become pigment free, hairless, violent drinkers of blood who die when exposed to UV light: Dark Seekers. Will Smith is Robert Neville, the last human left alive in New York, on Manhattan Island, and as far as he knows, the world. Also a scientist, he vows to find a cure for the virus, and restore the blood drinkers to their human form, and thus restore humanity. His only companion is a dog, Samantha.
The film begins in 2009, when the virus is unleashed, and then jumps forward three years to 2012, although it does continue to flashback to the outbreak of the virus for the first part of the film. The film opens strongly, with haunting scenes of an empty and overgrown New York, with buildings covered in plastic in a vain attempt to quarantine the virus, and streets filled with empty cars. Watch out for some in-house Warner Bros. advertising with a billboard on one of the buildings showing a Batman silhouette with a Superman logo over the top of it – does Christian Bale know?
The early scenes where Will Smith is alone is some of his best acting work, and the best scenes in the film. They show his daily routine as he tries to hunt deer in the roads (how did the herd get onto the island?), goes out onto the pier at midday to see if anyone has responded to his radio broadcast for anyone left alive to meet him there, checks the rats he has experimented on see if any of his cures have worked, and then locks down his house before sunset, with steel shutters on the windows. As he tries to sleep, we can hear inhuman howls and shrieks coming from the darkness outside. Chilling stuff. The scene where Robert goes to the video store (he is up to watching movies starting with the letter “G”) is one of the funniest moments in the film. His relationship with the dog is also incredibly touching and genuine, which makes it even sadder when tragedy strikes later on.
Then the Dark Seekers are introduced. At first it is promising, as Robert is forced to follow his dog into a dark building during the day in one of the tensest scenes since the carpark building scene in The Dawn of the Dead remake. The glimpses of the Dark Seekers are creepy, with their pale, wasted frames, and Nosferatu like appearance. However, as the film progresses, they become decidedly less creepy. Dash Mihok plays what is credited as the “Alpha Male” of the Dark Seekers, who progressively becomes Neville’s nemesis. Unfortunately the filmmakers seemed to think it necessary to make him do an inhuman howl where he has to open his mouth unnaturally, CGI wide, in the style of The Mummy Returns, in. Every. Single. Scene. He. Is. In. It becomes pretty tedious after a while.
In addition, despite the Dark Seekers exhibiting strategy and cunning in their combat with Robert, and that the Alpha Male’s motivation in going after him seems to be in order to get back the female that Robert has kidnapped to test his latest cure, Neville never acknowledges that they are more than bloodthirsty monsters. The ending is also extremely unsubtly Pro-Christian, but Will Smith does deliver a good speech about Bob Marley.
Altogether a tense, action packed entry into the sci-fi genre. However the third act is much less satisfying than the first two. If only they had put more of the book into the film. The question remains, is anyone out there willing to faithfully adapt the book for the big screen. Fourth time lucky for Matheson’s I Am Legend? Someone? Anyone?
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