Minute44 - Dan Schonhaar

Directed by: Francis Lawrence

Starring: Will Smith

2012: As the only man left alive in New York City, and possibly the world, following the outbreak of a deadly man-made virus, Dr. Robert Neville must find a cure for the ones the virus didn’t kill. Before the infected kill him.

As the last major release of 2007 I have been looking forward to I am Legend for some weeks now. Very little was given away in the trailers and what was made the film look both intriguing an very stylish indeed. I wasn’t disappointed. The story, without giving anything away was really quite believable and although the infected did kind of stretch the imagination somewhat, I wasn’t left going “Yeah… alright then!” This movie has been made before and was known as The Omega Man starring Charlton Heston as Dr Neville. The plot was slightly different, the apocalypse being brought about by a biological war rather than an experimental medical treatment but the story was pretty much the same. Certainly the ending matched up, again giving nothing way.

It must have been a tough choice casting this movie because other than the people you see briefly in flashbacks, there is only one main cast member. You obviously need someone who is interesting enough and charismatic enough to hold your attention but at the same time, because of the serious nature of the story, they can’t be too over the top. For that reason I was wary of the choice of Will Smith. His larger than life characters of past movies have always been a slight detriment. In I am Legend, however, Smith finds his middle ground and finds it well. He’s not as serious and morose as he is in The Pursuit of Happiness but then he’s not as all screaming gung-ho as he was in Independence Day. Subtle nuances of his character really make you believe that this man has had no form of human contact in 3 years.

The setting was excellent, the production really did an excellent job of making New York City completely deserted and overgrown. That worked really well. They worked in little nods and inside jokes too, letting you know that this disaster happened in the slightly near future. For instance, at one point in Times Square you see a poster for what seems to be a Superman/Batman crossover film. Perhaps, if a little hypocritical, a slight dig at the money orientated cinema of the modern day. It is certainly a product placement vehicle of biblical proportions with Apple, McDonald’s, MSNBC and Spam (Believe it or not) getting mentions.

Although I really did enjoy this film as a winter blockbuster, it did seem slightly lacking in a couple of departments. First of all, the effects were all really good except those used for the infected. The fully CGI zombie/vampire/monsters were more reminiscent of the mummy from… well… The Mummy and had a certain inappropriate comedic nature to them. In parts they were scary, sure, but in others I was left feeling a little 1999ish… Second of all the film seemed empty in parts…. I know, I know, he’s the last man on earth, you’re supposed to get a sense of emptiness, but I felt that, in parts, this feeling wasn’t such a good thing. If you’re only gonna have a one man cast, you’d better keep the pace up the entire time or enjoyment of the film will suffer. Maybe it’s the feeling of the post-apocalyptic genre wearing thin. I certainly don’t think we’ll see many more of these.

Over all I’d say I Am Legend was a success, mainly due to a very strong performance by Will Smith, and a worthy end to a mixed year. Let’s hope it signals the start to a slightly better 2008

Verdict: