I Am Legend reviews

[viber_91]

http://emanuellevy.com/article.php?articleID=7836

In the apocalyptic sci-fi "I Am Legend," Will Smith gives a commanding performance as Robert Neville, a brilliant scientist who believes he's the sole survivor of a catastrophic plague that has killed most of humanity, while turning the few survivors into mutant vampires.

Accompanied by his loving and loyal dog, Smith looks astounding, and he treats the material seriously as an actor, not as a schlocky actioner or effects-driven sci-fi. He's well-aware that the credibility of the whole saga depends entirely on him. In this and other respects, "I Am Legend" is engaging, representing the closest thing to a one-man show, not seen on the big screen since Tom Hanks in Robert Zemeckis' "Cast Away," in 2000.

Problem is, Smith presides over two disparate movies that compete for our attention, a stark, existential L.A.-set apocalyptic tale that occupies the first half of the movie, and a more conventional B-level zombie flick, marked by all the visual and thematic clichés, that dominates the second part. I wish I could say "I Am Legend" is two movies for the price of one, but it's more the case of a film with schizoid identity, one that feels obligated to deliver all the goods expected from the two genres on which it is based.

Even so, adapted from the 1954 novel by Richard Matheson, the sci-fi author of "Twilight Zone" and other works, "I Am Legend" is Hollywood's third and best rendition of the honorable source material, first made in 1964 as "The Last Man on Earth," a cheesy Italian flick with Vincent Price in the lead, and then in 1971 as a Charlton Heston vehicle, "The Omega Man," which was set in L.A. Interestingly, despite mixed reviews when it opened, over the years, "Omega Man" has achieved a minor cult status.

The previous versions of Matheson's book, which was called "I Am Legend," took a more conventional horror approach, but, made in 2007, Francis Lawrence's "I Am Legend" aspires toward a more timely and relevant take in the wake of the post 9/11 zeitgeist--with existential plight, xenophobia, and dirty bombs, all in the news lately.

In a brief prologue of a TV report, a scientist-doctor (Emma Thompson) describes how the long, torturous fight against cancer has been won, which makes the next scene all the more powerful. Three years later, Manhattan has become a desolate and empty island. In brief, impressive strokes, the cinematographer shows how a once-glamorous city has turned into a depressing place, with shattered skyscrapers, abandoned vehicles (some upside down), and neglected parks. We quickly identify the landmark Times Square, or what's left of it, with billboards announcing musicals like "Hairspray" and "Wicked."

The first, eerie sounds are those of birds (tribute to Hitchcock's "The Birds"?), and lions chasing and killing a herd of deer that run for their lives in Manhattan's deserted avenues. Robert Neville is introduced driving a Shelby Mustang GT 500, with a big rifle in hand trying to hunt down a deer for dinner. Unsuccessful, he returns to his house, in the Village's Washington Square, which is disorganized and full of supplies.

Neville's family life is conveyed through flashbacks, interspersed throughout the story, depicting Neville as a military scientist, who had lost his wife and daughter, when the Island was quarantined, with him as the only immune person of a threatening virus.

Depressed, scared, and alone, Neville spends the rest of the saga just trying to survive, but he also looks for a possible cure, which eventually is found—at a price. While scavenging for supplies wherever he can find them, Neville continues to send out radio messages, desperate to find other survivors out there.

Neville, of course, is not really alone. He's surrounded by "the Infected," victims of the plague who have mutated into nocturnal carnivorous and devouring creatures. All along, the "Infected" lurk in the shadows, watching Neville's moves, waiting for him to make a fatal mistake, while Neville is motivated by one obsessive goal, finding a way to reverse the viral effects, using his own immune blood, which is hot, scarce commodity, considering that he's outnumbered by his enemies and running out of time.

Screenwriter-producer Akiva Goldsman (who won an Oscar for "Beautiful Mind" in 2001) has conceived the film as an "intimate epic," large-scale in scope and style, but intensely dramatic in terms of the central figure and his predicament.

During the film's first reels, Smith doesn't speak much--except when he communicates with his dog. He's mostly seen with his reliable companion, a German shepherd named Abby that has already achieved famed and notoriety on its own. (The interaction between Neville and his dog recalls that between Tom Hanks and his volleyball in "Cast Away"). The dog plays such a crucial character that, toward the end, when Neville realizes that Abby is also infected and he needs to take an immediate action, the tragic scene that follows is the most emotionally touching in the picture.

Like most sci-fi, the saga is nocturnal, and this one benefits from being set in Manhattan rather than in Los Angeles, the locale of most apocalyptic tales of the past three decades, including "Omega Man" and "Blade Runner" (which, by the way, is in current theatrical release).

Ultimately, Goldsman and director Francis Lawrence, rejoining forces after "Constantine," are only semi-successful in making a fresh movie that deviates from "28 Days Later" and "28 Weeks Later," one that's less monster-horror-zombie and more allegorical and character-driven.

"I Am Legend" has been in development hell (to use Hollywood parlor) for a long time. Over the past decade, stars Tom Cruise and Michael Douglas and directors James Cameron and Guillermo del Toro have been attached to the project. Then, in 1997, Ridley Scott and Arnold Schwarzenegger were about to start shooting the picture, when the studio pulled the plug under due to its then inflated budget. Warner tried again in 2002, with Michael Bay directing a script by Mark Protosevich ("The Cell") starring Smith. But the following year, Danny Boyle's "28 Days Later," a British flick about a zombie virus that ravages London, that became a cult hit and thus made the producers nervous.

Will Smith, who continues to develop as an actor, is at the right age and career phase for this role—and he may be one of the few bankable stars right now. Over the past decade, with the exception of Michael Mann's "Ali," and "Wild Wild West," no movie starring Will Smith has lost money, and many, including his latest "The Pursuit of Happyness," brought prestige, money, and even Oscar nomination.

Much in the vein of "Enemy of the State," "I, Robot," and "Pursuit of Happyness," "I Am Legend" represents Smith's new, favored type of entertainment: A big-budget, special-effects, mass-oriented fare that's also socially-conscious (or at least not mindless popcorn).

[MaxFly]

http://www.futuremovies.co.uk/review.asp?ID=780

Immediately after watching I Am Legend I went to a bookshop and bought myself a copy of Richard Matheson’s classic novel. Greater praise hath no man. It’s quite different from the film, mind, but not in a bad way.

New York City, 2012. Robert Neville (Smith) gets up every morning. Does his exercises. Eats breakfast. Listens to music. Takes his dog Sam out for walks, and to pick up supplies. Goes to work. Plays a little golf. Sends out a broadcast on the radio. Nothing so unusual about any of this, I hear you think. Well, no. Except that Robert Neville is, as far as he knows, the only living human being on the planet. He and Sam are entirely alone, and have been for three years.

In 2009, a scientist called, ironically, Dr Krippen (Emma Thompson, in an uncredited cameo), announces that she has discovered the cure for cancer – a retrofitted virus that is initially hailed as a breakthrough in modern medicine. But it isn’t long before the virus has mutated into a deadly airborne form, killing millions of people. Neville, a military scientist, is part of the team working to find a vaccine, but as the pandemic spreads, the government orders Manhattan locked down, with only the uninfected allowed to evacuate.

Those who the virus didn’t kill, it changed…

And now Neville lives alone with Sam, surrounded by strange, primal creatures who dwell in darkness, only emerging at night to eat. But Neville is determined to find a cure. He knows he is immune to the virus, he just doesn’t know why. He has set up a lab in his basement, and is determined to find a cure, testing various strains and solutions of his blood on infected rats. And one day he has the breakthrough he has been hoping for, and can start testing on humans…

Will Smith might seem like an odd choice to play Robert Neville (in the novel, apart from anything else, he is blond and blue-eyed) but actually his performance is excellent and completely believable. It’s easy to forget that Smith is actually a fine actor, and that his range is not just limited to action films. That said, there is quite a lot of action in I Am Legend, escaping from the infected, hunting deer (and Smith has clearly been through a gruelling training regime – the man is buff) but its in the quiet moments that Smith really shines. His face is more drawn than usual, and he’s clearly fighting for his sanity everyday.

The design of the film is absolutely superb. Danny Boyle did it first, and I Am Legend surely owes him a debt, but the scenes of New York with grass growing up between the paving stones, the buildings rotting, herds of wild animals rampaging between the abandoned cars are incredibly impressive and the budget here stretches to helicopter shots which obviously Boyle’s did not. Neville harvests sweetcorn in Central Park and fishes for carp in a museum. But all the while he keeps an eye on the time, for darkness is coming.

Cleverly the infected are only revealed bit by bit. First just as howls and screams drifting across the city. When Neville is forced to venture into a building to save Sam, we see more, but only in flashes from his torch. Far, far more scary to only see them in bits, and this scene has some great jumpy moments. As usual, once we can see them properly, they’re less interesting, but by then the story has taken a new turn – Anna (Braga) and Ethan (Tahan), survivors, hear his broadcast and come to find him. Though he has been desperate for company, after three years of complete isolation Neville finds it hard to cope, but now he has something else to live for.

Like all the best science fiction, I Am Legend says a lot about the times we live in, from the dangers of genetic tampering to our fear of pandemic diseases, from scientific rationality to irrational, but very human faith. It’s a powerful and ultimately uplifting film, with a superb central performance by Will Smith, though acting awards also go to an Alsatian called Abbey, who steals every scene she’s in.

[viber_91]

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/i_am_legend/

83% at rotten tomatoes now... poor Edward Doulas, he's all alone. I'm hoping that we dont get any more bad reviews, cause right now this seems like a great movie.

Edited December 9, 2007 by viber_91

[MaxFly]

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/i_am_legend/

83% at rotten tomatoes now... poor Edward Doulas, he's all alone. I'm hoping that we dont get any more bad reviews, cause right now this seems like a great movie.

Yeah, I think people are reacting far too quickly to some of these reviews. We get a bad review and it's the end of the world, we get a good review and it's "Oh, ok, it's a great movie." Another important thing to note is that many of these reviewers have already read the book prior to seeing the film. We should wait for more people who haven't read the book in order to get a more accurate measure. I have a feeling that people who didn't read the book will end up saying something similar to the reveiwer above...

Immediately after watching I Am Legend I went to a bookshop and bought myself a copy of Richard Matheson’s classic novel. Greater praise hath no man. It’s quite different from the film, mind, but not in a bad way.

I believe that people's bias in favor of the book will undoubtedly affect their view of the movie... I mean, we've already gotten a review in which someone said that they went into the movie fully ready and wanting to dislike it, but didn't.

[Radewart]

While it's good that we're getting postive reviews now, the reviews aren't exactly glowing. Pretty much every review good or bad has ripped the cgi creatures. That should of been the one given for the movie. You think after movies like Lord of the Rings and the Matrix, the cgi would of been fine. I mean Warner Bros. is spending all this money and it's there big holiday movie, make sure the special effects are good. Also, alot of reviews don't like the ending, which is the most important part of a movie. Still it's great to hear that Will has given a great performance.

[Radewart]

http://www.reeltalktv.com/2007/12/i_am_nominated.php#more

Just saw “I Am Legend” with Will smith. It blew me away. I was thinking, oh no, not another rampaging infected maniac movie (after “28 Weeks Later” and “30 Days of Night”). However this is different. It’s about one man’s quest to survive and find a cure for mankind. And for anyone who lives in Manhattan, it will especially hit home, because the production design is extraordinary.

Seems to me that Will Smith should get an Oscar nomination. I know it’s a tough year with Russell Crowe, Denzel Washington, Frank Langella, Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson all gunning for the honor. But if Tom Hanks got nominated for talking to a volleyball for two hours then Smith should be a shoe-in for hanging out with his dog for a lean, tense 100 minutes.

Which got me thinking, if Smith is nominated for “I Am Legend,” Denzel for “American Gangster,” Don Cheadle for “Talk To Me,” and Morgan Freeman for “The Bucket List,” we will see four African Americans on the Best Actor ballot -- surely a first.

What do you think? Is "I Am Legend" Smith's chance for an Oscar win this season? This would be his 3rd nomination.

Edited December 9, 2007 by Radewart

[MissAshley]

that's pretty interesting, I heard something similar in reference to a Golden Globe nom a few weeks back about Will's performance.

[Typhoon20]

71% on RT now, going down.

[Typhoon20]

http://nymag.com/listings/movie/i-am-legend/

It’s an especially happy pipe dream during the holidays: midtown Manhattan depopulated but for deer, a few lions, and the congenial Will Smith standing in for all of us. Yes, there are hordes of hairless, feral vampires, but during the daylight hours they huddle indoors, leaving the hero of I Am Legend at liberty to drive like a maniac down empty avenues and shag golf balls from an aircraft carrier into the harbor, the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges (their middles blown out) a magnificent backdrop. He even has a companion—a loyal German shepherd named Sam. For quite a spell, we don’t know why Smith is the last human standing and don’t much care; we assume, correctly, that we’ll get traumatic depopulation flashbacks whenever the plot runs down. And as he proved in Independence Day and The Pursuit of Happyness, Smith is in his element cracking wise by his lonesome. His solitary existence isn’t as sad as it might be with more of a people person.

BACKSTORY

Though I Am Legend filmed all over New York City for six months, the most elaborate shoot took place over six nights in January, during which the 250-person crew—plus 1,000 extras, several tanklike vehicles, and a Black Hawk helicopter—took over the Brooklyn Bridge and its environs. At $5 million, it was reportedly the most expensive single scene filmed in the history of New York and required getting the permission of fourteen different government agencies.

I Am Legend is the movies’ third stab at Richard Matheson’s novella of the same name. The Last Man on Earth (1964) featured a whiny Vincent Price besieged by zombielike bloodsuckers, while The Omega Man (1971) cast lockjawed Charlton Heston opposite hooded Manson-family-like albinos who wouldn’t shut up. (Led by Anthony Zerbe, they seemed more likely to bore you to death than eat you.) Neither film caught the nihilistic mood of Matheson’s book, in which the hero is as vicious and feral as the ghouls. This one doesn’t, either. Smith does grisly experiments on vampires in his basement, but he’s searching for a cure for their virus. Things only get personal when they go after his dog.

Apart from all the product placements, which feel weirdly incongruous in the context of Armageddon, the first two thirds and change of I Am Legend is terrific mindless fun: crackerjack action with gnashing vampires barely glimpsed (and scarier for that) and how’d-they-do-that New York locations that retroactively justify the traffic jams. (For a few weeks, every New York traffic report seemed to end: “And Fifth Avenue/lower Manhattan/Times Square is closed off for the Will Smith movie.”) The director, Francis Lawrence, clearly grooves on the visual gimmick—wide-open spaces alternating with claustrophobic dens, as Smith closes himself up in his Washington Square brownstone while the ghouls howl and moan outside. Then some boring characters show up and a dangling cross on a rearview mirror signals faith and hope are about to make a dispiriting comeback. The finale is swift and senseless. So far no one has gotten the ending of this story right. We should get on it before the real plague hits.

So far almost none of the reviews were 100% positive, it felt like all the positive reviews, most of 'em, weren't really positive to begin with, it starts out good but then they all say the same...

Edited December 10, 2007 by Typhoon20

[Hero1]

I think by now we see a pattern. Great opening hour, great production design, great performance by Will.. Terrible CGI, very poor ending.

[Typhoon20]

http://www.cinemablend.com/reviews/I-Am-Legend-2777.html

I’ve never been prouder of Hollywood. They’ve taken a dark, eerie, and emotionally shattering post-apocalyptic script and turned it into a big budget blockbuster starring Will Smith, without compromising any of the challenging, gut-wrenching content that made the whole thing so tragically beautifully haunting in the first place. I Am Legend is an absolutely uncompromising film, the solitary and hopeless story of one man, staying alive and refusing to surrender even when there’s no longer any reason to continue. It sticks with that too, not as a setup to some big action set piece, but as a genuinely moving, horrifying, and thrilling journey into one man’s lonely, desperate hell.

That man, the last man, is Will Smith as military scientist Robert Neville. I guess he’s also technically speaking, mayor of New York and president of the United States, since there’s no one else left to fill the jobs. Three years ago, the population of planet Earth was wiped out by a plague, and as far as Robert can tell he’s all that’s left. Except that is, for the mindless, vicious, vampire-like, sunlight allergic creatures which scream, hunt, and bloodlust just outside his front door each and every night.

Robert has survived for two reasons, and neither of them have anything to do with his natural immunity to a world-killing disease. That only helped him survive the first wave of dying. He’s lived this long because he’s smart and because he’s utterly focused, unwavering in his determination, no matter how ludicrous or far-fetched, to “fix this”. Each day he follows the same, specific, carefully thought out routine. He gets up, he eats, he hunts, he looks futilely for other survivors, and he looks for a cure. When the sun goes down, he bars the windows and hides in his bathtub with his only companion, a German Shepherd named Sam, praying that tonight won’t be the night that his carefully planned precautions fail, and the monsters find him.

Much of the film is spent watching Robert toil under these conditions, as the already dead world around him starts to crumble even further. The monsters he’s been avoiding are getting worse, he’s no closer to finding a cure, and he’s long since run out of hope. It soon becomes clear that Robert keeps working and living not because he really thinks he’ll succeed, but because there is quite simply nothing else for him to do. It is what’s kept him sane and strong so far, but soon what little strength he has left is put to the test.

Will Smith is quite simply commanding as Robert Neville. Unlike his other big-budget efforts, he’s calm and restrained as Neville, remaining not only catchphrase free, but also managing to be utterly broken and vulnerable beneath a complicated veneer of determination and strength. We knew Will Smith could act, we just haven’t seen him do it in anything with a major Hollywood budget. Finally though, he’s fully cast off the Big Willie persona that earns him all those paychecks and turned in something deep and mesmerizing. And he has to, because the movie rests entirely on his shoulders. For most of its running time, there are no other characters. Will simply is the movie, his only sounding board an expectedly silent canine companion.

Meanwhile, this is still a big-budget, Hollywood action movie… of sorts. It’s full of all the usual, splashy (and sometimes bad/unnecessary... what ever happened to animal trainers and prosthetics?) CGI and eye-popping set pieces. The film would be worth seeing just for its opening scene alone, in which Will Smith pops a rifle out the window of his “borrowed” Ford Mustang and goes high-speed deer hunting through downtown New York. Warner Brothers got their money’s worth. Except where other action movies would be loud and jittery, I Am Legend is still and quiet. It looks glossy, but director Francis Lawrence makes his movie zig when all the big money behind it might normally urge him towards zag. The movie takes chances, assuming its audience is up for more than ear-splitting explosions, zombie retreads, and happy, catchphrase laden endings; even if this is an effects heavy, tentpole Holiday pic. I can't however, help wishing the film's final script had taken it even further. It ends almost too abruptly, where earlier drafts of the script went even further in putting Neville through the wringer. But perhaps that's asking too much. Even as it is, it's hard to say if it’ll pay off, smart and downbeat rarely plays mainstream (just look at the fast disappearance of Frank Darabont’s The Mist), but if you’re up for melancholy and contemplation in an action-thriller; then it just doesn’t get much better than I Am Legend.

[Hero1]

I must say I'm genuinely excited to see Will's performance in this.. Theres a lot of people who would be quick to jump on Will, suddenly singing his praises. Must be sumthin special

[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.

[Typhoon20]

Well one thing that keeps popping up in my head is if there's a possibility

of Will getting a nomination for the oscars for his performance. I'll be seeing this in the weekend hopefully so I'll have a better opinion about it, but so far from almost all the reviews he gets major praise. These type of movies usually don't get nominated unless the movie is at LOTR level, seeing how this one won't be, it's tough to get an idea. Because even though it's a sci-fi-horror movie, it's for the most part a character study, and the movie is a drama for the most part. I don't know, I just hope there's a possibility.

[Typhoon20]

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.

Edited December 11, 2007 by Typhoon20