I AM LEGEND: A MOVIE REVIEW

I AM LEGEND (2007)

Things were slow workwise today, so I decided to attend a matinee movie. As it happened, I Am Legend was the only one available at the time I arrived. The others option hadn’t either started or would require a lengthy wait. I got my ticket and entered, choosing a rear seat, as is my inclination. There was a sparse group. The film began.

The opening scene is of a couple of “talking heads.” The video is rather “grainy.”

This film was directed by a Mr. Lawrence. It starred Will Smith. There were others.This film story line is apocalyptic, although the whereabouts of God, or even his existence, was a debating point, as usual, between the characters who possessed faith and those guided by assertive scepticism. Folks, there wern’t many of either. Faith in contemporary time was not encountered until a Brazilian woman and a boy were discovered well into the film. In the scientific mind of Col. Robert Neville (Will Smith), he is probably alone, excluding the “Devolved.”

As is rather stereotypical in films, scientist Neville is trying to find a cure for what ails them. Toward the end, true to these sorts of films, Col. Neville trues to “reason” with these Devolved and flesh-eating creatures. Let’s just say that the whole thing ends up blowing up in his face.

As stated, the film opens in recent past via a media interview between a woman “talking head” and the featured guest, a Dr. Kissel. We learn from this good doctor that a vaccine for cancer had been discovered, about ten thousand patients treated with this new “wonder drug,” and all had been cured of cancer. Dr. Kissel, upon direct interrogation, announced that there now existed a cure for cancer. Everyone is smiling. Good, good news!

Fast forward just 3 years to 2009. Something went “bad wrong” with the cure. Most people who are at contemporary film time are as “dead as a doornail.” Most of the numerous remainer (about half a million) had devolved into beastlike creatures. They are hairless, have great jaw openings, and are incredibly quick, fast and athletic (did I say agile?). They no longer have human reasoning power but have a society that requires an alpha male. These things are bad news. Doubt it not!

The storyline: After a promising vaccine to cure cancer turns “weird,” the some six billion people on Earth die off, leaving the inexplicably immune Col. Robert Neville, and a half million Devolved to contest the Big Apple’s turf and the world beyond. A crack scientist to boot, he is devoting his time now to finding a cure, using his own blood as initial element one. By means of “flashback,”he has attempted some months back, when there was a “window of opprtunity,” to have his wife and daughter airlifted to safety. Things went awry. He does have his daughter’s puppy, a German Shepherd. There is a “boy and his dog” aspect to this. Most of the film continues at a pedestrian pace, but there are hyped moments. The viewer is treated to Will Smith’s lab work, social moments (with Samantha, the dog), as well as hunting, and the scavenging for useful items to take back to his pad at Washington Square. There are tousles with the Devolved. Finally, the hunter is trapped, sustains a thigh wound, is attacked by feral things, and witnesses the German Sheperd, Samantha, wounded by a contagious Devolved (wolf?). It is shortly after this bleak moment that the Brazilian woman and boy appear. She takes him back to his pad/fortress. There, lab work, philosophy, and fortress defense vie for the moviegoer’ attention. Ultimately, this leads to tragedy and hope. The film concludes with an epilog in upstate, where a colony of people survive.

Now, as far the “colony upstate,” we have seen something of the same in the recent film, Resident Evil III, Extinction. There, too, the virus, the vaccine creation, and the scientist appear. We see an echo of the vintage film, Old Yellow, where that amiable hero comes down with rabbies and has to be exterminated by those who love him. There have been numerous depictions of desolate American Metropolises. In this case a strong approval rating is given by me to the sets.

Will Smith gave another very good performance. He definitely has improved all round with his new “seasoned” look. There was credible support by the “spear-carriers.”

The bottom line is that it is a good cover of familiar film themes.

All right reserved. Gobigfoot, 2007.