I Am Legend reviews

[Typhoon20]

http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0750,foundas,78573,20.html

Legend Has It

That old 'last man on earth' setup? It really works.

by Scott Foundas

December 11th, 2007 11:55 AM

Will Smith disobeys leash laws in I Am Legend

Barry Wetcher, SMPSP

I Am Legend

Directed by Francis Lawrence

Warner Bros., opens December 14

There are two momentous performances in the Darwinian horror fable I Am Legend. One is by the movie's star, Will Smith—but more about him in a minute. The other is by the movie's visual effects—not the ones that bring to life a nocturnal army of shrieking, carnivorous beasties (though those are by no means unimpressive), but rather the ones that render a near-future New York City that has been "ground zero" for a different kind of terror attack—Mother Nature's. Three years on from a pandemic in which a "miracle" cure for cancer mutates into an incurable, rabies-like plague, the isle of Manhattan has regressed into a state of frontier wilderness, and the images rendered by director Francis Lawrence, cinematographer Andrew Lesnie, and visual effects supervisor Janek Sirrs have an awesome, iconic power. Deserted cars choke the bridges. Tree roots protrude through the surface of Seventh Avenue. And Times Square bustles with a new sort of tourist—herds of wild deer stampeding through, on the run from . . . something.

That something is the Infected, human plague survivors transformed by the virus into ashen predators who have effectively laid waste to the one percent of humanity genetically immune to infection. By night, they take to the streets, unleashing their primordial howls like bats desperate to return to hell. By day, hindered by a vampiric reaction to sunlight, they roost in the shadows, temporarily ceding control of the city to the one remaining uninfected human, the scientist Robert Neville, who has lost his wife and daughter to the virus and now spends every waking hour searching for a cure. Those, roughly, are the events of Richard Matheson's 1954 novel I Am Legend, which has been adapted for the screen twice before—first as the Italian-made The Last Man on Earth (1964) with Vincent Price in the lead, and later as The Omega Man (1971), a piece of early-'70s psychedelia that cast Charlton Heston as Neville and turned his adversaries into trench-coated social revolutionaries.

In Lawrence's version, which was adapted by screenwriter Mark Protosevich (Poseidon) and revised considerably by Oscar-winner Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind), Will Smith steps into Neville's shoes, and it's the first time an actor has been asked (or allowed) to play the character as something more than God's lonely, angry man. For much of the movie, it's literally a one-man show, as Neville goes through his daily routine, tearing about the empty Manhattan streets in his strategically product-placed Mustang Shelby, raiding abandoned apartments for nonperishable supplies, and trapping the occasional Infected so as to have a new trial subject for his laboratory.

Smith is simply dazzling here, and for all the undeniably impressive work the actor has done on his physique for this role, what's most appealing about him is his active intelligence—how he thinks his way through a role—and his capacity for human weakness. Watch him, especially, in the scene where he nurses his wounded canine companion, and later, when he refuses to abandon his "post" to follow fellow disease-free survivor Anna (City of God star Alice Braga) to a supposed survivor's colony in (where else?) Vermont. If he just stays put in his lab, he tells her, testing one vaccine after another, he's sure he can put things right. There's a manic edge to Neville by that point, and Smith makes you feel every inch of his impotent rage. In what has been a pretty remarkable career up to now, it's this performance that fully affirms Smith as one of the great leading men of his generation.

If, as a movie, I Am Legend is less stylistically mind-blowing and intellectually ambitious than last year's yuletide dystopia, Children of Men, it's not far off. The screenplay shrewdly condenses the pre-plague backstory to brief, staccato flashbacks and manages to shift the emphasis of the novel—which was about how Neville came to be seen as a kind of monster by a new race of non-vampire mutants—without diluting its power. (Here, the crux of the narrative is a timely dialectical argument between a man, Neville, who puts his faith in science, and a somewhat fanatical woman, Anna, who puts hers in God—both of whom appear, by turns, more fanatical than righteous.) Lawrence's direction, too, is more subdued and artful than you expect to find in a high-ticket holiday blockbuster, notwithstanding a smattering of cheap shock edits and sound effects. More often, Lawrence takes things slow and easy, staging much of the film in long, dialogue-free handheld camera shots that use space, production design, and intricately layered sound effects to deliver us into Neville's desolate existence. But when the time comes for the inevitable showdowns between Neville and the Infected, Lawrence is no slouch, notably with an ingenious standoff in which a winnowing band of daylight is all that separates Neville and his pooch from almost certain doom. If I've saved mention of those scenes for last, it's only because Lawrence—like Peter Jackson and James Cameron—is among the few filmmakers with full access to the digital paintbox who seems to understand how those tools work best: to magnify the human dimension of a movie instead of extinguish it.

[MaxFly]

71% on RT now, going down.

Jeez Ty, calm down. It was at 83% earlier because there were 6 reviews in all, and 5 good ones out of 6... 5/6 is 83%. There was a bad review, so it became 5 good ones out of 7. 5/7 is 71%. 1 Review drove the rating down that much simply because there are so few reviews so far.

Since then, the movie has gotten 2 more good reviews for 7 good reviews out of 9... 7/9 is 78%. The movies is at 78% right now.

Lol, calm down.

I can't D, I can't. Whenever I stay positive things take a bad turn.

Whenever I think negative, things turn out positive. I have this weird ''view'' going on, I don't want to jinx it lol.

Oh, cool. Keep doing what you're doing then. :signthankspin:

[MaxFly]

Here's a picture of the CGI infected thanks to viper..

In keeping with Ty's strategy, they're horrible... :wickedwisdom:

[Hero1]

It’s easy to go into “I Am Legend” with low expectations. Director Francis Lawrence’s résumé consists of music videos and the ludicrous Keanu Reeves’ vehicle “Constantine.” Smith has generally been one of the movies’ most self-satisfied and least compelling performers. But the film crackles with intelligence and terror — zombies have been, pardon the pun, done to death in recent years, but Lawrence makes these beasties into a formidable threat. He also ratchets the suspense level up into the red, making for a wonderfully squirmy experience.

As for Smith, he has to carry about 80 percent of the movie solo, and he’s utterly compelling. Whether he’s attempting to maintain his sense of bravado or glimpsing his complete and total despair, Smith nails the character brilliantly.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22203436/

[MaxFly]

Long regarded as one of the more difficult stories to adapt to film, Will Smith’s newest outing is a pleasant surprise. Written by Richard Matheson, I Am Legend is a simple story, at least at its core: A lone human must survive in a world overrun with Vampires. However, like all simple concepts there is so much more to the story. The story behind the making of the making of I Am Legend is about as dramatic as the film itself. Before ever hitting the silver screen, Matheson’s novel inspired a young George Romero as he penned The Night of the Living Dead. A few short years prior in 1964, Vincent Price starred in The Last Man on Earth, with the screenplay penned by Matheson; he later requested his name be removed after many rewrites forever altered his original story. In 1971, Charlton Heston starred in the cult classic Omega Man. Only taking the most basic elements, Omega Man is an adaptation in name only. With little to no box-office success from any adaptation, I Am Legend became the stuff of legends. One of the few unadaptable novels. Not even Ridley Scott and the governor of California could bring Matheson’s story to the theater.

Like so many horrors visited upon the world, the path was set with the greatest of intentions. Meant to cure humanity from all forms cancer scientists developed the KV virus. While successful, the virus had a deadly and unknown "side effect". Anyone infected with KV quickly becomes a cannibalistic monster akin to Vampires (sharing the mythical creature’s lethal weakness to UV light as well as their never-ending thirst for blood). In a short time, the virus mutates into an airborne variety that kills most of humanity. Those it doesn’t kill, it transforms into the above-mentioned Darkseekers. Will Smith plays Robert Neville, a military virologist and last surviving occupant of an abandoned and infected New York City. Immune to all varieties of the virus, Robert Neville stays in New York, forever seeking a cure to the disease that Neville blames himself for creating. During the day, Neville does his best to maintain his sanity by gathering food and performing research in an underground lab. By night, he locks himself in tight within stone and steel walls as the Darkseekers ravage the abandoned metropolis. His only living companion is his child’s pet German Shepard, Sam.

Robert Neville is a man wrecked with guilt, driven to atone for the horrors he feels he has unleashed upon all humanity. Everyday we seem him slide further and further into despair as each one of his experiments and cures fail. While not quite as gut wrenching as Frank Darabont’s The Mist, I Am Legend shares a similarity in that the human element generates the strongest emotional punch. The Vampires in I Am Legend are only a plot device to further drive Neville’s own journey. Robert Neville is truly a man alone. At first, you question his sanity as he talks to self-placed store mannequins. Then you realize this isn’t the inane rambling of a man slowly descending into madness. No, Neville’s actions are completely sane. His conversations with his animal companion Sam and mannequins remind Robert of his own humanity. It reminds him of all he is working towards. Robert Neville is doing more than simply surviving. He is trying to take control of his own destiny. A destiny that long ago spiraled out of humanities control. Will Smith deserves a strong credit in his performance of Robert Neville. It isn’t easy to maintain that emotional level when you have no one to act against not counting cute little Samantha, his animal companion. Will Smith brings the audience on an emotional ride. You feel his pain. You feel his fear. You feel his hope. You feel his loss. You feel his short moments of happiness. Will Smith once again proves in his performance of Robert Neville that he is truly a Hollywood star. I am glad the filmmakers didn’t resort to Smith’s public pleasing one-liners and comedic charms. This is an extremely subdued Will Smith, yet also one of his more powerful performances. This is Will Smith's strongest performance since Ali.

What of those Vampires?

Well, visually they are one of the weakest elements in I Am Legend. The heavily publicized decision to run with CGI Vampires already cast a shadow over the film. I am not a fan of complete CGI characters. Rare does a computer character ever out perform a flesh and blood actor. Such was the case with the Vampires in I Am Legend. There are some moments, particularly when the creatures are only seen in a flash of light or hidden within the shadows that their horror shines. Sadly, the moments when the Vampires are in full view, their fakeness is stark against the real world. Still, they do illicit some genuine scares and generate tension. I just wish some of the close-up shots, especially tight face shots, used real human actors. I had images of Arnold Vosloo's Imhotep on more than one occasion.

This version of I Am Legend takes some strong deviations from Matheson’s original story, the filmmakers still turned in a strong film adaptation. My biggest issue with this version of I Am Legend is its lack of social commentary found within the original story. Still, this is a good drama with shades of horror. Not as emotional punishing as The Mist, I would say it surpasses 2007’s other strong horror film, 1408. I Am Legend will satisfy most any audience member. The scares are good, the tension is strong, and Will Smith's performance is truly fantastic. This is a legend you’ll want to see.

http://www.geekinthecity.com/movies/i_am_legend_spo.php

Edited December 12, 2007 by MaxFly

[Hero1]

Wow. Great review!

[Hero1]

I Am Legend is a fantastic movie for 50 minutes of its runtime. The opening of the film is perfectly designed and the visuals showing an empty New York City overrun with weeds and wildlife is stunning to say the very least.

Finally, the ending is terrible. It is a flat out Hollywood cop out and a complete 180 from what the first 50 minutes offered up. I Am Legend shows signs of originality and unexpected plot turns before resorting to skin-of-your-teeth saves and comfy cozy endings to keep American audiences happy

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/movie/i_am_legend/review/588

[Typhoon20]

http://www.reelviews.net/movies/i/i_am_legend.html

I Am Legend

A Film Review by James Berardinelli 3 stars out of 4

SCIENCE FICTION/ADVENTURE

United States, 2007

U.S. Release Date: 12/14/07 (wide)

Running Length: 1:45

MPAA Classification: PG-13 (Violence, disturbing situations)

Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1

Cast: Will Smith

Director: Francis Lawrence

Screenplay: Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman, based on the 1971 screenplay by John William Corrington & Joyce Corrington, based on the novel by Richard Matheson

Cinematography: Andrew Lesnie

Music: James Newton-Howard

U.S. Distributor: Warner Brothers

I Am Legend

---

I Am Legend, the third cinematic adaptation of Richard Matheson's novel, has been in development for a very long time. Originally slated to star Arnold Schwarzenegger and be directed by Ridley Scott, this movie has kicked around for so long that by the time it has finally reached the screen, Schwarzenegger is out of the business altogether and the director is someone whose career in music videos hadn't even started when Michael Bay was being touted as possible replacement for Scott. Nevertheless, all these years later, we finally have this new version of I Am Legend, starring Will Smith as the Last Man on Earth and directed by Francis Lawrence (Constantine).

I suppose it's a common fantasy - believing that you're alone on the planet. The reality, if it ever happened, would be more the stuff of nightmares. When Matheson wrote I Am Legend; from which this movie takes its name, its main character, and certain events and themes; he was interested in exploring the hard aspects of what this kind of existence might really mean. Loneliness can drive a person slowly insane even if they guard against it. That lies at the core of I Am Legend - the psychological torment endured by the protagonist. That, and the vampires.

Matheson's book has often been credited as the "inspiration" for many of the modern-day zombie movies; his "vampires" have a kinship with George A. Romero's dead. Cinematically, the creatures of this film most evidently echo (perhaps because of the circumstances) those in Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later. In fact, there are numerous similarities between that movie and I Am Legend, not the least of which is that both feature a scenario in which an apocalypse occurs because of a disease and those who don't die turn into slavering, raving monsters.

I Am Legend opens in 2012 New York City - the most deserted place on Earth. Kudos to the special effects wizards for using computers to so effectively depopulate the city. It's eerie watching such emptiness. New York has a human population of one: Dr. Robert Neville (Will Smith), an ex-military scientist who was to some degree culpable for what happened to his race. The disease was initially hyped as a cure for cancer (by Emma Thompson in an unbilled cameo) but it mutated and became a killer. The creatures it transforms can't emerge in the sunlight, so they stay hidden during the day only to come out and seek fresh blood between dusk and dawn. In that period, Robert and his faithful dog, Sam, are padlocked within his apartment. They hunt by day and hide by night.

Robert is lonely and his loneliness is eroding his sanity. He talks to Sam as if she was a human. He speaks to department store mannequins he has dressed in clothing. He rents DVDs of old news shows not so much so he can revisit the past but so he can hear human voices and pretend he's not alone. In many ways, it's how Tom Hanks survived in Cast Away - by making a basketball, Wilson, his best friend. Robert has set a broadcast to shout out his location on every station on the AM dial, but so far, no one has come looking. He uses a private lab in his apartment to continue research on the disease, always searching for the elusive cure. If he could save one vampire - turn it back into a human - he would no longer be alone. Ghosts of his past haunt his dreams, and it's through those tortured flashbacks that we gain some knowledge of what the last hours were like for our kind.

The first two-thirds of I Am Legend are superior to the fast-paced, action-oriented final 35 minutes. There's a key event that occurs just past the hour mark and, after that, the movie feels more like a typical Hollywood adventure than the introspective, thought-provoking production that graces the screens for the first 65 minutes. The ending, while not a complete cop-out, diverges from that of Matheson's book and feels a little too convenient and facile. For most of the movie, character drives plot. The closer we get to the conclusion, the more plot drives character.

There are some top-notch action sequences, such as one in which vampires and vampire dogs attack Sam and an injured Robert. There's also another scene in which Robert tries to take out an entire cell of vampires with nothing more than a speeding vehicle. There are some missteps - the deer chase is dumb and marred by CGI deer that look CGI. And the climactic struggle is less exciting than it should be. There's a sense that some of the action was inserted into the movie to keep from losing the attention of younger viewers. It's okay for the movie to deal with intelligent ideas as long as there are enough bangs to enliven the proceedings.

As Tom Hanks did in Cast Away, Will Smith pulls off this half-insane role perfectly. Of course, in addition to being alone, Robert has other crosses to bear. He is hunted by the living dead. He carries a weight of guilt. And he knows, on one level or another, that he is responsible for what happened to his wife and daughter. Smith nails the portrayal. It's not the kind of work that will earn him an Oscar nomination but audiences usually don't see better than this in genre films.

Science fiction fans hoping for a faithful adaptation of Matheson's novel will be disappointed. This is no more a visitation of the source material than its predecessors, The Last Man on Earth or The Omega Man, were. The updates are timely - the movie makes the suspension of disbelief curve as easy to ascend as it was in Children of Men. For me, the most engaging aspects of the movie are connecting with Robert and understanding how he uses routine to survive each day. It's seeing the empty New York and understanding how its desolation offers both solace and pain. For the most part, the action sequences work - and they are directed in a straightforward manner that thankfully does not rely on fast cuts and shaky camera movement - but they are not the real reason to see this movie. Cautionary tale though it might be, I Am Legend offers a window into a future that probably won't be but that is easily believed within the context of this workmanlike motion picture.

© 2007 James Berardinelli

[MaxFly]

One of the main reasons why I don't pay much attention to critics.

http://www.nypress.com/20/50/film/ArmondWhite.cfm

Strange pigmentation, ethnic marginalization and a cure for racism: parsing together Will Smith’s transformation into a hero

By Armond White

I Am Legend

Directed by Francis Lawrence

As the last civilized man alive—after the Earth has been devastated by a man-made virus—Will Smith in I Am Legend attempts to repair the damage of The Legend of Bagger Vance. It was a peculiar career setback, done before Smith discovered that his innocuous screen presence (smiling, jokey rapper you can trust) could be manipulated to pop culture dominance.

Smith’s subsequent Oscar-nominated roles in Ali and The Pursuit of Happyness certainly weren’t legendary performances. In fact, last week’s tributes to Smith’s career in Time magazine and on CBS’ “60 Minutes” only concentrated on his box-office record—both conspicuously overlooking Bagger Vance’s flop. That old-style Hollywood melodrama cast Smith as an inspirational caddie, subordinate to Matt Damon’s golf hero.

Now, Smith plays the hero through I Am Legend’s remake of the 1971 Charlton Heston futuristic sci-fi thriller, The Omega Man. It’s a fascinating restructuring of cultural history that I Am Legend presents Smith as the Alpha African-American movie star. In the film’s most impassioned moment, Smith’s scientist-soldier character shouts, “I can save everybody!” Let’s anatomize this phenomenon.

VIRUS: Hollywood’s racist conventions still deny certain levels of individuality and romanticism to black male actors. Smith got to movie stardom through co-star or sidekick roles. His blockbuster resume: Independence Day, Men in Black I and II, Wild Wild West, Bad Boys I and II grossed enough money to skyrocket him through Hollywood’s glass ceiling.

Yet none of them challenged Hollywood ideology. Even Smith’s first serious role in Six Degrees of Separation subordinated him to the white liberal discontent of Stockard Channing and Donald Sutherland; playing a Hollywood-inspired con man pretending to be the son of Sidney Poitier, Smith was a black urban sociopath. Stereotype confirmed.

TRIAL: Despite the implicit mechanization of I, Robot (2004), Smith finally got a chance to address ethnic marginalization. Similarly, his voice work in Shark Tale (2004) was the first big-screen allusion to his musical career and fish-out-of-water status. Neither film equaled the social consciousness of Harry Belafonte’s comparable test-balloon movies Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) and The World, The Flesh and the Devil (1959) from the Civil Rights era. Instead, Smith’s films asserted his identity outside a recognizable social context.

INNOCULATION: I Am Legend reprises a little-observed motif from I, Robot where Smith battled strangely pigmented enemies.

After the catastrophic epidemic, humans devolve without the melanin that withstands exposure to light. These ash-white “Dark-Seekers” attack Smith in cannibalistic hoards, a surreal image with a sociological undercurrent of lynch-mob violence.

When Charlton Heston fought the Dark-Seekers, they were hooded and darkly-complexioned—fearful images of the Other. Heston, in Civil Rights mode, sacrificed himself, imparting the blood of life. Smith plays military scientist Robert Neville, whose duty to save humanity is sustained against the outbreak of freakish hostility. These Dark-Seekers pointedly resemble a skinhead mob; so in the post-hip-hop era, Smith/Neville sacrifices by example of stardom.

INCUBATION: Music video director Francis Lawrence makes flashy spectacle but indifferent characterization. Sketchy flashbacks clichés fill in Smith/Neville’s background. The only contours of personality come in an ingenious moment when Neville awakes to a DVD of Shrek and recites from memory Eddie Murphy’s dialog as the cartoon Donkey. It’s a moment of brotherly recognition; Smith communicating with Murphy as a Hollywood equal and with the global movie market as a pop culture beast of burden. Both successfully maneuver through international exposure and renown.

CURE: Smith may not have the instinct for serious fare or developed the confidence to risk politically frank movies, but he has codified certain messages: Neville gets rescued from loneliness and isolation by Anna and Ethan (Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan), a woman and boy who have survived the epidemic and are seeking a safety zone; they test his belief in God and revive his allegiance to mankind.

As in the light-weight Hitch, Smith always seeks non-threatening allies—ethnically indeterminate females and children. Neville introduces Anna to Bob Marley’s recordings, describing them as “a virologist’s idea that you can cure racism

by injecting music and love.” It is Will Smith’s credo.

PROGNOSIS: While I Am Legend is formulaic sci-fi action (ripping-off 28 Weeks Later) it’s only interesting as a cultural-political artifact. Scenes of post-apocalyptic New York are boiler-plate (including Neville fishing in the Met Museum’s empty Temple of Dendur pool), but the final Utopian vision of a preserved American town, complete with a white-steepled edifice, symbolizes the social ideal—the cinema as secular church—to which Smith seems committed.

The image of Smith cradling his pet dog while a lonely tear falls down his cheek confirms that his gentle stereotype is not just generic, but invincible. He’s gone from Hollywood lawn jockey to socially aware entertainer-ambassador-savior.

[Typhoon20]

I wanted to choke that ....

D, have you read the additional comments to that review on RT ?

They ripped the dude, rightfully so.

Anyway, that dude got some issues.

[MaxFly]

I wanted to choke that ....

D, have you read the additional comments to that review on RT ?

They ripped the dude, rightfully so.

Anyway, that dude got some issues.

I've read the comments.

Sad thing is that he counts towards the score of the movie.

[Mr K]

Whoopsie...

The RottenTomatoes review count is up to 52 now and a 52% score together with the following consensus:

While I Am Legend starts out with a promising premise, it falls victim to unconvincing special effects and a horror cliché-filled final act.

That sucks. It's pretty much what people have been saying so far but it keeps letting me down everytime I read it. How on earth could they screw up the CGI so badly? With everything that we've seen over the last couple of years in movies like "Transformers", "Spider-Man" trilogy, "I, Robot"...etc one would think that CGI would be the one thing we wouldn't have to worry about with this movie and yet here we go.

I'm not gonna comment on the ending until I see it but it sucks that people are not responding well to it. The ending is always very important because this is the thing that you leave the cinema with. Even I get it, how come people like Akiva Goldmsan, Francis Lawrence and even Will who are supposed to be "proffesionals" don't and can't be bothered to work a little harder to get it right. Always annoys me, always have and always will.

Cheers

[Hero1]

but Mr K they didn't have to work at all for the ending..the ending of the novel is brilliant..if they'd kept that we would probably have a classic movie. The writers, producers and warner bros should hang their head in shame for changing the ending.

[JumpinJack AJ]

I tend 2 overlook reviews. I don't read them til after i see the movie. Why on earth do i care what some idiot who gets his stuff published actually thinks? I don't. And i'm not gonna go in2 a movie with what they said in mind. I'm not really in2 movies when it comes 2 scripts and stuff. I just care that it is entertaining...and we all know there are quite a few movies out there that are entertaining that aren't actually good. I respect a movie for good quality...but half the time i'm gonna choose a silly movie that i find more entertaining over a movie that's actually really good. I'll choose Bill + Ted's Excellent Adventure over The Departed any day.

Who cares what these people say. I'm gonna see the movie 2morrow nite and THEN i'll read all this stuff.