...a triumph of set design and CGI over story line or credibility.
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Note: In the following joint review, both John and Jason provide their comments on the movie, with John also writing up the Video, Audio, Extras, and Parting Thoughts.
The Movie According to John:
One thing you can say for certain about this latest adaptation of Richard Matheson's 1954 sci-fi novel is that it's better than the previous two versions, "The Last Man on Earth" (1964), starring Vincent Price, and "The Omega Man" (1971), starring Charlton Heston. "I Am Legend" (2007) at least went back to Matheson's original title, and it carries with it much of Matheson's dark tone. It still may not be a great movie, but at least you can't discount its serious intent.
Since this is a science-fiction film, naturally it stars Will Smith. An exaggeration, of course, but it does seem like Smith has made an acting career out of sci-fi. Just don't expect the same old glib, sassy, amusing, happy-go-lucky fellow we've seen Smith play in movies like "Independence Day," "Men in Black," and "I Robot." Here, he's in straight dramatic mode as a more real-life, naturalistic character; and while he continues to be the ever-charming Will Smith, he's Smith wearing a sullen countenance most of the time.
You'd be sullen, too, if you thought you were the last human being left alive on the planet. Smith plays a military doctor, Lt. Col. Robert Neville, who is struggling to find a cure for a virus that has wiped out most of the Earth's population, leaving only him immune. Oh, and it's a virus that has also turned a small percentage of the populace into mutant vampire zombies with an aversion to light. Well, Matheson had to give Neville a proper adversary, after all, so why not?
"I Am Legend" is a triumph of set design and CGI over story line or credibility, so make up your mind before starting that you are going to have to suspend your belief more than usual for this fantasy to work. Now, I know it sounds a little odd for me to suggest that "I Am Legend" might require more suspension of disbelief than, say, a goofy, far-out flick like "ID4," but, remember, movies create their own worlds for us to believe in. With "ID4," the filmmakers simply told us that aliens were invading our planet, and we could pretty much go with that idea; we just accepted it as a part of the film's make-believe. Yet with "I Am Legend," the filmmakers try to create a more realistic scenario for the world's destruction, and in their trying to do so, it means that we as an audience have an even bigger job trying to accept it. The more a film wants us to believe that something could genuinely happen, the more the filmmakers have to work to convince us. And "I Am Legend" has its fair share of issues in this regard.
For instance, most of us might agree that a virus could wipe out the world's population. But why would it also turn some select folk into blood-seeking monsters with superhuman strength and agility, who go nuts and die at the prospect of light? It makes for great entertainment, to be sure, but if you're going for reality, it makes no logical sense; nor do the filmmakers ever try to explain it.
Anyway, I digress. "I Am Legend" is really about the look of the world and the state of Dr. Neville's mind after the catastrophe, and it's in these areas that the movie succeeds. The year is 2012, three years after the virus outbreak, and we see a deserted New York City with all its familiar landmarks covered over with weeds and decay, its bridges crumbling and destroyed. That's the spookiest part of the movie: the appearance of desolation and deterioration everywhere; and the computer-generated graphics that create these impressions are quite convincing.
Likewise, Smith is good at conveying his character's sense of solitude and despair. Neville is not just fighting isolation; he's fighting off depression and guilt, too, and possibly the onset of suicide. He feels that he alone must work to save humanity, perhaps turning the mutants back into normal people. He feels that he alone is responsible for the fate of Mankind, that somehow by not preventing the virus in the first place he was accountable for it, and he's seeking redemption through his work.
With only a faithful German shepherd, Sam, as his boon companion, Neville toils tirelessly to find a cure for the disease, look for nests of mutants by day, and lock himself up against the creatures by night. From this premise, the plot unfolds slowly, with continual flashbacks filling in the back story.
The movie may not be what everyone expects, however. I've already mentioned its dark tone. Indeed, it is grimmer and sadder than most other films in its genre. For example, when the film opens, Neville has been isolated for three years. To combat his loneliness, he has resorted to talking to store mannequins, setting them up in strategic locations around the city to give him a sense of human contact and companionship. Before long, though, the film's bleak outlook becomes oppressive.
This is not an action movie in the traditional sense, although there are several action sequences involved (probably too much toward the end). It's more of an introspective, psychological character study, with Smith's Neville practically the only person involved. Because it is essentially a one-character drama, it puts a load on Smith's shoulders, and though he does his best with it--and he is good--he needs more help than the intriguing set design and redundant script offer.
"I Am Legend" is basically a sullen, sombre affair, without much character involvement and with long stretches of quiet solitude where not much seems to be happening. As I have said, it can become more than a bit depressing at times. Partially to relieve the story's joyless spirit, the film also carries a cautionary message, which doesn't go very far before the crash-and-burn violence takes over. Neville exclaims, "God didn't do this...we did." Well, no, actually, Matheson and the filmmakers did this, and they want us to accept it. Much of it we can; much of it we can't. I went away feeling that the film was a bit sluggish yet oddly fascinating as well.
John's film rating: 6/10
The Movie According to Jason:
"I Am Legend" might as well be called "The Will Smith Show." Alone on screen for the majority of the 100-minute running time, Smith draws the audience into the story about the (presumably) last man on Earth using a combination of his former personas. Part father from "The Pursuit of Happyness," part action hero from "Bad Boys," and part "Fresh Prince" wisecracking smart ass, his Robert Neville commands the screen like few actors can.
In the near future, the human race is nearly exterminated by a virus designed to kill cancer. The population has turned into pale, blood-hungry creatures, sensitive to sunlight. Neville is one of the only survivors along with his dog, Sam. He has New York City to himself as his search for a cure slowly progresses. What does the last man in the city, and maybe the world, do?
Will Smith's performance here has been compared, perhaps unfairly, to Tom Hanks's work in "Castaway." Both actors are put on screen for prolonged periods of time with no other human actors to play against and with a non-human (in Hanks's case, inanimate) co-star. But whereas "Castaway" is a triumph of the human spirit, "I Am Legend" showcases the race at its very worst…or at the very least, the over hubris in our ability to control nature. And it's not only the cancer cure that gets away from the human race; it's the virus it mutates into.
Take notice of one of the flashbacks of an evacuating New York City. The military clearly is out of its league in trying to contain a mass panic. Forget the idea that an Executive Order quarantining the city comes down before all the necessary personnel have been airlifted out or the bridges and tunnels destroyed. To control the populace, logic dictates a quiet evacuation of VIP's and then the Presidential order. In a previous flashback, watch the technology developed to screen for the virus. It's an eye scanner. How it works, we don't know nor does the movie really care, which gives false positives. By extension, isn't it reasonable to expect it would also give false negatives, thereby condemning virus-free people to whatever fate the government decides? And, by further extension, a false negative would allow the virus to get out while it is attached to infected "safe" people?
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