I Am
Legend is a movie you
want to see, especially if you love Will Smith, but you might not be
happy with
the ending.
Smith stars as Robert
Neville – a military scientist and doctor living in a
post-apocalyptic New York City
in 2012 (kind of like New York City
in the seventies, but with less
people and bit safer). Three
years earlier, a horrible
virus broke out, started infecting people all across Manhattan,
and led to an evacuation of the
island. Neville was
in charge of finding
a cure, but, three years later, he is the only human left. He still carries on
experiments to find the
cure, still clings to hope that humans may be somewhere out there, and
still
tries to carry on some sort of normal existence.
Will Robert find the
cure? Can he stay
safe, when it appears
there is something out there? What
is
it?
I Am
Legend is a captivating
and exciting film because of Smith, but even he can’t save us
from this ending. Of
course, that’s always the rub with a movie
like this.
Writers Mark Protosevich and
Akiva Goldsman (based on the novel by Richard Matheson) as well as
director Francis
Lawrence take full advantage of the premise.
The audience is compelled to imagine what they would
do in the same
situation, try to think along with Robert as he attempts to stay alive
and
maintain hope, but where do you go from there?
Lawrence and team have to
decide if we are going to get the happy ending, the sad ending or
something in
between, and I’m not even sure there is a good answer that
will satisfy
everyone. Instead,
I felt like they abandoned
a promising story about what Robert encounters out there in the wilds
of Manhattan
and how he has
underestimated it, then go for a more traditional ending that was
disappointing
to me because it feels grafted on to the movie to appeal to the middle
of the
road instead of being daring. Luckily,
that is the only disappointing aspect of I Am
Legend.
Smith is fantastic. Much like Tom Hanks had to
capture our
imaginations in Cast Away with nothing but his ability and a
volleyball, Smith
has to make us care about a guy left all alone in the middle of a
barren Manhattan
with the most
amazing dog in the world. Sure,
the dog
has more range and charm than Wilson,
but it’s Smith who needs to grab our attention.
He makes us feel
Robert’s desperation,
sadness, the pain of what has happened in the past and his role in it. Yet,
we also see his will
to live, which is
where Smith shines. He takes those moments to give the character
some warmth, which wins over the audience and makes those scary moments
a bit scarier because we actually care about what might happen to him. It’s
a great
performance that might get lost in the middle of the Oscar race buzz
and
hubbub, but one that proves Smith is one of the great actors working
today.
Lawrence
gives the audience many awesome action scenes, heartpumping chases, and more
tension-filled moments of waiting for something horrible to emerge from
out of
the darkness or from around the corner than you find in a modern horror
movie. That alone
is worth the price of a ticket or
two.
3
½
Waffles (Out of 4)
I Am
Legend is
rated PG-13 for intense sequences of science fiction action and violence
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2007 - WaffleMovies.com
