Based on a novel by Richard Matheson, I am Legend is a story about the lone survivor of an apocalypse caused by a pandemic of bacteria which mutate men into monsters.
The film starts out wonderfully silent. In the opening sequence, we witness a world in utter ruins and completely void of any human existence. Looking at the city of New York empty and void of human life leaves you completely awestruck. You wonder how such a powerful nation could be completely terminated by something so tiny and insignificant.
Will Smith who stars in the film continues his streak of superb acting and strong performances. It was not his best performance, (I save that for The Pursuit of Happyness), but he seemed to put his whole heart into it as he spoke basically to himself for three quarters of his dialogue. What the film lacked in character development was made up by Smith’s emotions and overall demeanor throughout the movie.
The storyline was dull however and I would have liked to have more of a background as to why Smith was chosen to stop the virus, how the virus got airborne, and how he survived when the millions of others did not. Instead, the film focuses much more on Smith’s quest to find a cure to the infection and his daily routines as he scours New York for food and other possible human life.
Overall this film was a good one. Although the story was not very strong, it was quite entertaining and worth a weekend at the matinée.
Synopsis:
Robert Neville is a brilliant scientist, but even he could not contain the terrible virus that was unstoppable, incurable, and man-made. Somehow immune, Neville is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York City and maybe the world. For three years, Neville has faithfully sent out daily radio messages, desperate to find any other survivors who might be out there. But he is not alone. Mutant victims of the plague — The Infected — lurk in the shadows… watching Neville’s every move… waiting for him to make a fatal mistake. Perhaps mankind’s last, best hope, Neville is driven by only one remaining mission: to find a way to reverse the effects of the virus using his own immune blood. But he knows he is outnumbered… and quickly running out of time.
I totally loved the novel. I haven’t seen it yet, because I have to wait till January before it gets shown here.
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I am still waiting for the IMAX 3D theater here to play this film, because I want to catch the 6-7 minutes short IMAX film of the upcoming The Dark Knight. I will write a review about this film then, but I am glad to read about your thought.
Still need to catch this one and a few others. I’m behind on movies!
im going to watch this.. i love will :P hey i love fried rice with spam :P
To answer some questions.
Smith is one of the few who were immune to the virus. The virus only affected like 90-95 percent of the population. The rest of those that were not affected, were killed by those who were. Smith’s character was chosen to stop it because he created it. He was one of the scientists who created the “cure” for cancer.
I like that they didn’t go out on a limb to explain exactly how he survived the attacks while millions more didn’t. It leaves it to the audience to speculate on what he may or may not have done.
*SPOILER*
yeah, I understand he was immune to the virus. That was very clear. There was like 1% who were in the world population. Even with his immunity, he was not immune to attack however. Yet he was able to survive the onslaught of the infected while others could not. He was the last man in NEW YORK ! How did he manage to set himself up like that?
I was under the impression that the lady in the beginning of the film on television was the scientist who created the cure for CANCER.
the lady in the beginning was a part of a research team that he was the head of..
Well it sounded as if she was the actual person who discovered the cure. At least from my understanding.
I just came back from watching this and I agree there was a lack of context in terms to how Robert Neville became the central character in the first place. Now I would understand if a lot of the questions are answered in the novel, but it would be nice to see a little segue of it somewhere.
Either way, I agree that it was extremely entertaining with the right amount of humour and action! Smith acted pretty well (and I agree he really topped it all with “Pursuit..” rather than this movie, though it was good as is). And The Infected seem to resemble Voldermort. At least, in my opinion. Maybe it’s just me.. haha!
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Come to think of it, those zombies did remind me of Lord Voldermort. haha. Good insight!
This film had some of the crappiest cgi I have ever seen. It was Stephen Chow time with that cgi. If you like the concept Trench, read the book. Its great. Then you can add it to your book reviews section. :)
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