moviereview - I Am Legend

I AM LEGEND

	In 2009, mankind unleashes a deadly virus. By 2012, 90% of humanity is dead. Some of those left are immune, most are feriociously mutant. Col Neville is still searching for a cure.	score 4	moviereview rates films from 1 (unwatchable) to 5 (unmissable)
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Cast
Will Smith, Sam the dog, Alice braga, Charlie Tahan, Emma Thompson, Dash Mihok

Director
Francis Lawrence

Screenwriter
Mark Protosevich
Akiva Goldsman

Country
USA

Rating / Running Time
M / 101 minutes

Australian Release
January 2008

Official Site

You might think climate change will bring about the end of the world. Actually, it’s Emma Thompson. On discovering a cure for cancer, she, representing science, unleashes a deadly virus that wipes out 90% of humanity. So starts this searing sci-fi drama that pits Robert Neville (Will Smith), here representing the future of mankind, against two deadly opponents. The first, and the most terrifying, is loneliness.

Wanting for a better title, I Am Legend remakes Charlton Heston’s The Omega Man (1971) when Emma’s virus was the by-product of Russian/Chinese biological warfare. Tomorrow, we bring this plague on our own house suggesting that no matter how altruistic our desire, meddling with the gene pool will inevitably incur God’s wrath. It’s a theme explored when the now-atheistic Neville is quizzed by one of God’s faithful. She doesn’t much care for his answer.

I Am Legend is a significant improvement on its predecessor. The infected are thrillingly scary and even though Lawrence drops into a singular note of anxiety, it’s an effective one. As is the film’s production – opening scenes that reveal the devastation wrought on New York are breath taking, recalling 28 Days Later for how-did-they-do-that wonder. Colonel Neville, holed up with his faithful canine Sam, is a military doctor still committed to finding a cure. Quite who for in his desolate city, perhaps nation, perhaps world, is the first of many questions. Perhaps the unrelenting loneliness has driven Neville mad. After all, he talks to store mannequins for company.

Critic Roger Ebert once said that if anyone has to be the last man in the world, it might as well be Charlton Heston: “If God should decide to start the human race again, [he] could always be Moses”. This time we get Will Smith: fitter, funnier and he’s already saved the world three times before.

More than a splashy, seasonal reason for three-course popcorn, I Am Legend is an enthralling, provocative film that probes big themes on a huge scale. There’s little time for niggling doubts (who is running the electricity department, for instance) as Smith, the flawless movie star, single-handedly commands our attention while Lawrence slowly and thoughtfully plays his hand. Minor revelations are as shocking as major ones, escalating tension to near fever pitch before slamming down the only ending possible. You come for the action, what lingers is the sense of despair. It’s what great blockbusters are all about.

// COLIN FRASER