I AM LEGEND (2007)

[Heineken Skywalker]

Will Smith plays Robert Neville, the last man in New York City, and seemingly on earth, after a man-made virus wipes out most of the world's population.
Neville's days are spent trying to live life as normally as possible. Working out, hunting, going down to a video store and "renting" movies, talking to the mannequins that he has positioned in various places, listening to music, watching recordings of old tv broadcasts, and having dinner.
In the evenings he barricades himself within his home, as people infected by the virus are now mutated vampire-like creatures who must avoid sunlight and therefore rule the streets at night.

Neville is also a former scientist who has dedicated the last few years of his life to trying to find a cure for the virus, so from time to time he captures one of the infected and takes it back to his lab to perform tests. The many photos on the wall of his lab show all of his prior test subjects and many failures in trying to find a cure.

Will Smith is a veritable one-man show as he's on-screen alone for almost the entire film,
very much like Tom Hanks in CASTAWAY. Neville's only companion, his pet dog, Sam, has replaced Wilson the volleyball. Smith continues to impress, as he handles the action scenes as well as the dramatic moments and really conveys the characters loneliness and desperation.

The early scenes where we're shown a post-apocalyptic New York are really stunning. Seeing such landmarks as Times Square overrun by weeds and deserted cars, not to mention deer, is pretty impressive and some of the film's best effects.
The infected are a little less convincing as they seem too computer-generated at times, but overall they're effectively creepy.
There are a couple of things that bothered me, but I won't mention them yet to avoid spoilers.

This is the third time the Richard Matheson book has been brought to the big screen, THE OMEGA MAN with Charlton Heston and LAST MAN ON EARTH with Vincent price were the first two, and this one is easily the best version of this story. See it on the big screen.

8.5/10

[Quorthon]

I'm curious to see it just because I have seen the other film versions of the book, and I'm a big fan of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic stuff. But I'm just so sick of seeing Will Smith everywhere these days. What genius thinks that he's the only actor that can be used in all these more classic science fiction/horror films?

I may wait for the DVD just because.

[Heineken Skywalker]

While I didn't care for "I, ROBOT", I enjoyed "I AM LEGEND" quite a bit. Unless I'm forgetting something, those are the only two classic sci-fi books that he starred in the movie versions of. And they weren't done back-to-back, so I don't feel like it's overkill.
Anyway, if he's "everywhere" nowadays, I haven't noticed. Like anyone starring in a current film, the man does have to get out there and promote the movie, but I didn't even see any of that.

[Quorthon]

I mean, that he shows up in so many sci-fi movies, and his attitude got grating with the first Men In Black. He was alright in Independance Day, but I hated the MIB movies.

Could've sworn there was something else he was in, not just these.

I've never really liked him anyway, I guess.

[Heineken Skywalker]

Huge difference of opinion here.
I didn't like the second MEN IN BLACK at all, which was obviously made as a cash-grab, but what did you hate about the first MEN IN BLACK? That it was funny, had great effects or that it was very original?
INDEPENDENCE DAY on the other hand, I felt was shallow, derivative, had forgettable characters, and wasn't nearly as clever as it's writers thought it was. The only thing it had going for it was decent effects and people ate it up in spades. I thought MARS ATTACKS! by Burton, which was released soon after and bombed, was way more entertaining. And it had funnier aliens.
There were some sci-fi elements in WILD WILD WEST, but that movie was just a huge steaming pile that I can't defend, so maybe that's what you're thinking of?

Eh, whatever, nobody complained about all the sci-fi/fantasy movies in Arnold Schwarzenegger's filmography. Some of which were great, but he had several stinkers in there as well. And he was originally slated to star in LEGEND as well. Would've been a completely different film had it been an Arnold movie.
Will Smith's last film before LEGEND, I believe was PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS, in which he gave a fantastic performance. Don't hate on the Fresh Prince. I haven't liked everything he's done, but he does have range.
Anybody else who actually saw the flick want to chime in?

[Quorthon]

Actually, I think it was the first Men In Black when my opinion of Will Smith started going south. His egotistical attitude with it, the hyper-lame music videos he made to "promote" the movie, and big chunks of the movie itself just bugged me.

I was pretty young when I saw Independence Day, and initially thought it was "way super awesome" and all. But last time I watched it... I spent more time cringing than enjoying the film. I'm convinced that the best thing Roland Emmerich ever directed was the original Stargate movie, because the fewer grating parts of that film were offset by the coolness of Kurt Russell and James Spader. Plus, it spawned an excellent TV series with Minnesota's own MacGyver laying down some of the best dialog and acting on any science fiction show on TV.

I may not necessarily have complained about some of the Governator's SF movies, but I sure have made fun of a few of them. Hey, you can't complain about The Running Man. It has governors of two states fighting each other (even though it was a "staged" fight in the movie)! The Governing Body beat the Governator! Moments like this really make life awesome.

It's not really science fiction, but I complained hardcore about Arnie's end-of-days flick... wait, was that actually called "End of Days?" Yeah, that sucked. He would also be wrong for I Am Legend which is essentially supposed to be a sort of "everyman" who has managed to survive in the post-apocalyptic world.

[Phoenix]

Well, I wont enter you guys' discussion about Will Smith, but I will say I didn't really like I Am Legend. I have read the book and I have to say the movie is waaaay different. It's EXTREMELY loosely based on the novel by Richard Matheson.

That's totally okay for me though - I can get over that pretty quickly. I hadn't seen a good isolation film in awhile (Castaway comes to mind) and I think that is more the feel of the film than, say, crazy sci-fi thriller, which I think it was marketed as. The action isn't as thick as the preview will lead you to believe. I heard some grumbles about that coming out of the theater, and from a few of my family members. Perhaps they wanted to see some mindless drivel like Men In Black or Independence Day (I like both films, )

SPOILER TIME*********************

For me, I found the whole thing sort of depressing though. The death of his dog in particular, which I knew was coming even, was just too much for me to say "oh man this movie rocks!" I found the whole thing in fact to be extremely Hollywood-ish and that just makes it loose the cool isolation film I was hoping for. And will Smith quoting Shrek?

My favorite parts are definitely the way they made New York - good stuff there. The ending though - blah.

5/10

[Quorthon]

I finally saw this over the weekend, and I have to admit that Will Smith actually impressed me. He took the role very seriously and delivered a strong performance. The ending was sorta "meh" like Phoenix said (reminded me of Signs), but it was fun throughout. I liked that the film was dark and fairly depressing which is what the end of the world would be like if you were essentially the sole survivor.

Lameness ensues when any filmmaker gets overly reliant on CG effects. Some actors as zombie/mutants would've been nice.

[Heineken Skywalker]

See? told you not to knock it till you try it.
Sometimes it's like trying to get a little kid to try a new food around here.

I agree the ending was kind of meh and there was definitely an overdose of CGI used for the infected. Would've prefered actors in makeup for the majority of it, but oh well, can't review the movie I wish they'd made, only the one they made. And overall, I thought it was pretty good, mainly because of Smith's performance.

[Quorthon]

May 27, 2008 13:24:49 GMT -5 Heineken Skywalker said:

See? told you not to knock it till you try it.
Sometimes it's like trying to get a little kid to try a new food around here.

I agree the ending was kind of meh and there was definitely an overdose of CGI used for the infected. Would've prefered actors in makeup for the majority of it, but oh well, can't review the movie I wish they'd made, only the one they made. And overall, I thought it was pretty good, mainly because of Smith's performance.

I had fully planned to watch it, my original worry was that I was burned out on seeing Will Smith in Sci-Fi roles and that his "I'm so awesome" attitude might interfere with the film.

Also, there was my still standing refusal to support theatrical releases of remakes. I'm still sticking to that.