Walking into I Am Legend I really wanted it to be good. I walked out of it disappointed. It is not a terrible film but it falters. It has moments of that show potential and aspects of the film are effective, but I felt it was a case of a film being flawed just enough for me not to like it.
The film revolves around Will Smith as the "last man on earth", or at least the last human. After a deadly virus is released and kills off most of the population of earth, the remaining survivors become vampire like creatures. Smith's character, now being the last man on earth, must survive among the hoards of the living dead. He spends his days looking for supplies and looking for a cure for the virus, as he was a scientist before the outbreak. Soon his survival becomes more difficult as he struggles to find the cure and he fears his mind is slipping.
The film is actually based on a novel of the same name by Richard Matheson. The novel I can say is honestly my favorite book. It is a dark and intelligent book that really captured my imagination. This film is as faithful as it could be to a fifty-year-old novel, and I do not complain about that. Its fine if a film is not a hundred percent faithful to a book but this film I think missed the all-important mood of the book. This film should have been a mush darker character study then it was, like in the novel.
My avid admiration for the book aside, I did not like the movie for other reasons then its adaptation of the novel. What actually frustrated me was nothing happened. There are little moments of emotion that I felt worked and the action was scarce. The action also was nothing really special either as it gave me only minor thrills. As far as being scary there is only one scene that I thought was mildly creepy. The films pacing and execution was just mediocre to me.
What were highly impressive in the film were the great special effects of an emptied and worn New York City. It is utterly eerie how believable the effects of the deserted city look in this film. All the empty streets and beaten exteriors of the city make it one of the better looking special effect landscapes ever. On the other had the creatures in this film look awful. They look very fake and resemble bad video game graphics. The way they bounce around the screen looks really fake. It is very evident that the effects team on this film spent much more time getting the landscape of the city right and less time on the creatures in the film.
Will Smith also does an admirable job here. In the past some have questioned his talent in as an actor. Here though he tones it down and gives a fairly good job with a flawed script. In almost every scene he must act by himself and he does a good job to carry many of the scenes. I only wish he had a little more to work with because I became bored after awhile of him just by himself.
The film also made the a big mistake in its ending. One thing is that it comes out of nowhere and ends abruptly. The ending, without giving anything away, is dull and lackluster. You would think all those quiet moments would lead up to a big ending but it just did not work. The payoff is very little in this film.
I Am Legend is the third adaptation of Matheson’s book and is my least favorite. It was first adapted to the screen in The Last Man on Earth in 1964 and was a creepy Vincent Price vehicle, and the second was the cheesy but fun Omega Man in 1971. Of all the films none were great or really got the book right, but the other two were at least good in some way. I Am Legend is a film that is paced poorly and has little excitement. The emotions of the film I did not buy either, and I did not enjoy it as a drama. It has some memorable special effects of a deserted New York but very bad effects in other scenes. Will smith is also good with some mediocre material. The film just never had a good rhythm to it and the film never grabbed me. Not a terrible film but don't go out of your way to see it.
2 1/2 / 4 Stars
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