by Jason Daniel Baker

Created on: June 14, 2008

I Am Legend (2007) Starring Will Smith, Emma Thompson, Alice Braga, Dash Mihok, Charlie Tahan, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith, Darrell Foster, April Grace, Joanna Numata, Samuel Glen, Marin Ireland, Anthony Mazza, Caitlin McHugh, Blake Lange.

Directed by Francis Lawrence.

Running time: 100 minutes.

Rating: AA

"THERE IS NO GOD! THERE IS NO GOD!"

In the near future (2012) a lone man (Smith) and his dog Samantha reside in the post-apocalyptic landscape of a New York City rapidly gone back to nature. The bright side is that at least crime is down, apartment rents in the boroughs are reasonable again, suddenly greenspace is on the increase and the city's crippling debt is no longer an issue. In fact one would barely recognize the city except that it remains unsafe to venture out after dark.

The man, Colonel Robert Neville is a former military virologist (former only because there is not a military anymore) who developed a serum against a plague, which overran most of the world almost three years before. He could not innoculate other people before the outbreak was almost fully spread but he did manage to innoculate himself.

As a result apparently at first, he alone remains human whilst "Darkseekers" a monstrous presence (like zombies only lightning fast) lurk outside his handsome Washington Square brownstone. He locks up tight every night and hopes they won't get him. He watches video from back when television was still on to remind himself of times he once lived in. It keeps him mostly sane but it also partly torments him.

Neville has started, as we pick up the action, talking to mannequins and toying with the idea of asking one out (some men enjoy the company of a woman who can exude a kind of personal aloofness or cool detachment). Going through the motions of being human even when there are no other human beings around is apparently reassuring to him on some level. When he finally does come into contact with humans (ones like him at least) his reaction is less than ideal.

I have watched the 1971 film version of this story which was entitled the Omega Man and featured Charlton Heston during his science fiction phase (Planet of the Apes and Soylent Green were also titles of his from around the same time). I still prefer that version but that does not mean I didn't like this one. Idid find the middle to be a big lagging but only because we are stck with but one actor throughout as likeable as that actor is.

Then as now, I didn't find the isolation to be that horrible (easy for me to say as it is) an ordeal for the main character. But they did not have VCRs or DVD players back then so our hero as portrayed by Heston had to go the movies and see the same flick everytime for that artificial human companionship the screen can provide. It was not even a film Chuck Heston would personally have approved of from a moral standpoint.

Will Smith is much beloved as an actor and star in almost any role he has played. I am not entirely sure what to ascribe that to but it has been ever since his first days on TV (The Fresh Prince of Bel Air) and film. There is something non-judgemental about his screen persona in my view. It could be that he has found the right vocal inflections and knows when to smile to disarm people but on film audiences just feel relaxed enough to accept whatever the diagesis is.

Personalism does not get the kind of credit it deserves in reviewing acting performance. But then seldom is it even properly defined in film review. Smith has it

Notes:

Some may view this as a rip-off of 28 days Later but technically (and legally) it can't be because the source material predates 28 Days Later.

The rating is appropriate. I have heard of kids not being able to sleep having seen it.

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