I Am Legend (Starring Will Smith) - $18.99
I must admit that I came into my viewing of "I Am Legend at a disadvantage. First, I haven't read the book upon which it was based (something I hope to correct soon). In addition, I'd heard much about the movie, both how brilliant Will Smith was in the role that had him alone on the screen for a significant portion of the movie, and also how the movie supposedly degrades in the last third. So when I finally got to see the movie last night, I was entirely unsure what to expect.
Having now seen "I Am Legend," I believe that the movie will go down as one of the classics in science fiction cinema. The cinematography is outstanding. When you see the epic shots of New York having been reclaimed by the wilderness, now the domain for the likes of lions and deer, the streets either clogged with deserted cars or choked by vegetation, you really believe that you are in the midst of the greatest tragedy of our modern times. The story is masterfully told in such a way that rather than being forced through a long expositional section providing the back story, or subjected to drawn out flashbacks that interrupt the forward momentum, the past is revealed in brief flashbacks, video clips that Smith's character, Robert Neville, constantly plays on his television, and other subtle but prevalent clues like photographs and newspaper clippings that are cleverly positioned within various scenes throughout early parts of the movie. This film, unlike many others these days, doesn't operate under the assumption that its audience is fairly clueless. It respects its audience, and I very much respect the film for that.
Both Will Smith and his canine companion quickly become beloved friends whom you care for, which makes the twists and turns that occur later on all the more moving. When the enormity of the very fact that, in Neville's mind, he is the only living human left on the earth (besides the vampire-like creatures who used to be humans) hits you, you too begin to feel the weight of his loneliness and can then understand why he is in many ways slowly going insane. If not for the daily ritual that he's structured his life around, one gets the feeling that this man would have ended his own life long before. And there's something haunting about the base story here, that some tragic event could in fact leave a once life-filled metropolis like New York a cold, empty monument to a once mighty race of beings. Could our own quest for advancement one day be our undoing?
While I must admit that the movie does seem to rush toward the ending, with the climatic moments seeming to come too soon after a major plot twist changes Neville's entire world view, I don't have a problem with the way the story ends. I suppose the ending is more "Hollywood" and less "deep" than I assume that the book is, but the ending in itself is very well done, and given the ordeal that this character has gone through, is one that works well for me. I just wish more time had been spent getting us to the ending because what this movie had, which far too few movies in this genre have today, is a solid plot that fed both the appetite of the action junkie and the person who prefers a great story. Another minor fault I must hold against the film is the vampire creatures, who would have been far more compelling if they were played by real people rather than CGI. The only CGI character that has yet to truly come alive within a real world setting is Gollum from The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and that character was built upon the brilliant acting of Andy Serkis.
"I Am Legend" isn't perfect, and the fact that it came so close is what's most frustrating to me as a fan of both Will Smith and this genre of film, but what it does provide, it does so very well. This is a fun, thought-provoking film that years from now will be one of Smith's most lauded performances. I highly recommend it to everyone.
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