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At least they got the title right this time. "I Am
Legend" based on the seminal sci-fi/fantasy novel by Richard
Matheson (THE SHRINKING MAN, DUEL, WHAT DREAMS MAY COME,
HELL HOUSE and screenwriter of "The Night Stalker", "Twilight
Zone", "The Night Strangler", and Roger Corman's better
AIP Poe films) has been made into a film twice before with
mixed results: the first film "The Last Man on Earth" is
a fairly faithful adaptation by Matheson himself (written
under his pseudonym when he disliked the budget, changes
to his script, etc.) captures the moody elements of the
script and the emotional power of the novel with a restrained
performance by Vincent Price. ***
The second film "The Omega Man" took many of Matheson's
concepts and altered them for a 70's audience. Written by
John and Joyce Carrington ("Battle for the Planet of the
Apes") the film has its moments particularly in a great
sequence involving Charlton Heston playing chess with a
bust of Napoleon, watching a "Woodstock" in a bit of irony
in a deserted theater in L.A. and the opening with Heston
tooling around a deserted Los Angeles) but missed much of
the emotional core of the story and, quite frankly, is as
creaky as an old door thirty plus years on. Matheson's novel
was also the inspiration for "Night of the Living Dead"
(George Romero changed the creatures from vampires in the
novel to flesh eating zombies but the first film "The Last
Man on Earth" and the novel had a lasting impact on Romero
and co-writer John Russo) entering popular consciousness
so often in one form or another that the novel's essence
was in danger of being corrupted by the very familiarity
of the themes. ***
While the third time isn't the charm, "I Am Legend"
is largely entertaining and Will Smith does a very good
job of carrying the first 2/3 of the film solo as Dr. Robert
Neville. "I Am Legend" retains Matheson's basic concept,
the main character of Robert Neville (Will Smith), the basic
structure of the novel and key elements but grafts on a
story that is more in keeping with "28 Days Later". While
it isn't a perfect adaptation, the film echoes Matheson's
themes and captures much of the sense of isolation of the
novel very well indeed. I'm not sure how Matheson himself
feels about it but at least this film gets more right than
wrong as far as I'm concerned. ***
Robert Neville (Will Smith) is the last human in New
York City which was ground zero for a man made virus that
decimated humanity. Dr. Alice Krippin (Emma Thompson in
an uncredited cameo) developed a cure for cancer using a
virus derived from rabies. The nearly 2000 patients in the
clinical trial were cured of rabies but became something
else…creatures afraid of light that became violent attacking
and eating everything. What they didn't eat became infected
and the virus, to Neville's knowledge, has ravaged the world
without mercy. He is, however, immune. He's not sure why
but he continues to experiment on the creatures in hopes
of finding a cure or someway to reverse the process. ***
What works really well; Will Smith's performance and
scenes with the dog, the flash back sequences, the images
of a deserted Times Square and the scenes of Smith tooling
around in his Mustang. Francis Lawrence does a very good
job as a director here echoing other films that have had
similar themes (including the homage to "The Omega Man"
in the opening of the film) creating a number of strong
suspenseful moments. Lawrence, however, spends too much
time dwelling on the "Night Seekers" (more on that later
in the review). We see too much of the "Night Seekers" and
they probably should be in shadow more and would have been
more effectively portrayed that way. Sometimes less IS more
but that's a minor miscalculation in the grand scheme of
things. What the film does best is echoing the novel and
the best elements of the two previous film versions. Each
version has had strong casting with terrific performances
by their leads (a restrained and moving performance by Vincent
Price in "The Last Man on Earth" and a powerful performance
by Charlton Heston echoing his previous role as Taylor from
"Planet of the Apes"). Overall, "I Am Legend" is a very
good movie that stumbles during the last third of the film
but still manages to generate good will because, well, director
Lawrence doesn't go for the excess that marred Boris Sagel's
"The Omega Man". I'm not sure how novelist Richard Matheson
feels about the film but the writers do a solid job of updating
the material and keeping the major themes intact particularly
in the alternate version of the film. ***
What's missing is fairly important. Matheson's novel
is more than a book about vampires or zombies. It is about
the profound effects of isolation and change. It's about
how easy it is for the hero to really be the monster, sacrifice
and, ultimately, reveals the fine line that Neville himself
crosses from savior of humanity to become a monster himself.
The original theatrical version while quite good lacks the
moral and ethical themes that would have elevated this into
something more than a good monster movie. This is remedied
somewhat by the alternate version included here which, although
not true to the novel, is true to the spirit of the novel
and addresses the motivation of the creatures and some of
the disquieting observations that Neville himself makes
about the creatures. This second version is curiously put
on its own disc while it could have been just as easily
been put on the DVD version in a seamlessly branching format
(the Blu-ray version is only available as a single disc
edition with both versions on the disc along with ALL the
extras including those accessible only via the internet
for the DVD version for more details on that fiasco read
the "Special Features" section below). ***
The alternate version has at least one additional scene
that I don't recall seeing in the theatrical cut and an
extended ending that most audiences would have enjoyed more.
It wasn't the "explosive" ending that filmgoers expected
which might explain the retooling of the film in post-production
(Warner remember these are the same type of focus groups
that screwed up "Blade Runner" so they are more often wrong
than right. Keep that in mind during your next test screening).
It also explains the major assault on Neville's compound
and makes the narrative a bit clearer. Is it perfect? No.
I'm surprised, however, that Warner elected to go with the
simpler cut of the film that showed in theaters when the
alternate ending (despite some holes in the plot and other
flaws) is clearly superior to the one that played in theaters.
This is what I hate about focus groups--it allows studios
to second guess the instincts of the filmmakers and often
(hey Warner guys remember "Blade Runner"…oh, I'm sorry that
was probably before your time…those who forget the past,
etc.) ends up compromising a project for the worst. ***
Perhaps one of the weakest aspects of the film were
the CGI creatures. While it worked (for the most part) in
the case of Golem for the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, the
"Night Seekers" are portrayed in a larger number here and
they appear more human than not. Since this is a science
fiction film and not a fantasy, I suspect people were harder
on the CG creatures here than they might have been otherwise.
However, they do look pretty decent most of the time. Given
more money (much of the budget ported over to the final
film was spent on two versions of the film that never made
it past the planning stages one with Arnold set to star
directed by Ridley Scott and another potentially starring
George Clooney--not to mention other false starts that didn't
get any further than the talk stages) and time, the CG "Night
Seekers" probably could have been rendered a bit better
with more believable detail but they serve their purpose
in the film. The CGI effects of a deserted Times Square
are more convincing (watch for the "Batman/Superman" logo
for a forthcoming movie from Warner…I wonder if this is
truly going to come to fruition. The main flaw, however,
is that the billboards for the shows on Broadway as the
same ones that were there when I was there two years ago.
I would think that something else would have appeared on
the boards of these theaters in the meantime…but that's
minor nitpicking). ---
Image & Sound:
"I Am Legend" benefits from the high definition Blu-ray
transfer here. Colors are crisp, bright and accurate and
the level of detail amazing. The visual effects used to
make New York City appear deserted and reclaimed by nature
look positively stunning. Director Francis Lawrence ("Constantine")
does a solid job with the material and creates a visually
stunning film that looks exceptional in DVD but brilliant
in Blu-ray. ***
Audio is used well with the 5.1 track creating an eerie
sense of isolation by the use of ambient sounds and…the
quiet sound of a dead city. ---
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