[Movie Review] I AM LEGEND
(Spoilers ahoy!)Well, I just checked the box office stats, and this thing went gangbusters in the States, doing almost $80 million this weekend. Expect that number to plummet next weekend once word of mouth circulates, because I Am Legend is a pretty forgettable, middle of the road film. What makes this film even more of a disappointment is, like so many films I’ve seen lately, I could see the potential for this thing to be something truly special. There are moments here and there where the film looks like it’s about to soar, but then something happens that sends this thing spiraling back down to Earth. I haven’t read the original story, but I am familiar with it, so for you purists out there: avoid this thing like the plague. You will be extremely disappointed with this film, particularly the ending. I’m not a purist, but I felt an overwhelming sense of “meh” when this was over. The only thing that saves this film from heading straight to the Sci-Fi Channel is Will Smith’s performance.
I’ve been known to give Will Smith a ton of crap concerning his film career. I like the 
guy, but his Big Willie shtick can work my nerves sometimes. It seems like he underestimates his own talent sometimes, choosing to play it safe with romcom trash(Hitch) and forgettable action-comedy roles(Wild Wild West). I prefer him when he pushes himself a little, leaving his goofy, charismatic personality behind a bit to try something new. I thought that he was great in The Pursuit of Happyness, and he is great here…at times. There are moments in this film where his performance as Robert Neville borderlines on greatness. As you know, he’s supposed to be the last man on Earth in the film, and when that sense of overwhelming loneliness creeps into his performance, he is solid gold. When this man has to cry in this film, it’s like he’s crying liquid gold. Perhaps my favorite scene in the film is when he enters a video store to get some DVDs. He’s placed mannequins all over the store in order to have conversations with them(sounds nuts, but in the film, it works). After a traumatic event, he goes into the store to say hello to a pretty female mannequin, and he just loses it emotionally. That moment encapsulates everything that is right and wrong about this film. I wanted to see this guy’s mental condition throughout the film, not just in a few brief moments. I wanted to see and feel the paranoia, the loneliness, the sheer craziness of driving around New York City and not having a single soul to speak to. I got it in that scene, and in a few others, but overall, the film does a pretty piss-poor job of making you truly feel like he was the last person alive. It wasn’t that the concept was too grand for me to buy, it was that Smith’s performance didn’t completely convey that feeling. For the most part, he seems fine. He’s cruising around the city in his hot car with his cute dog, and if you didn’t catch a glimpse of all of the shrubbery growing in Times Square, you’d never know that anything was wrong. He sure doesn’t look like the situation has taken a toll on him. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that Will Smith has never looked more handsome onscreen than he does here. Sure, as Grundy assured me in the talkbacks, he doesn’t deploy his trademarked ”Aww HELL naw!” in this film, but there were times that I could feel it right on the tip of his tongue. He pounds his fist a few times in frustration, but overall, I just couldn’t get involved. For the most part, he’s just way too cool, calm, and collected for me to sympathize with. Dude’s wife and kid are dead, but I don’t know them, so why should I care? Other than looking glumly into his daughter’s room once or twice and having some strategically-placed flashbacks, he doesn’t seem to care. He’s got his system of living down pat, and he gets to hang with his pooch all day long. Being the last person alive seems pretty cool in this movie!
Speaking of that pooch, she deserves an Academy Award nomination. Good girl! Thanks to the filmmakers for doing the right thing. You know what I’m talking about…
This film has a number of things working against it, starting with the “creatures”. Look, Gollum and Davy Jones have spoiled me for life in terms of CGI. When I see something interacting with a real person, I expect the thing to look as real as possible. These effects in this film were downright laughable. I was literally chuckling at times when the things came onscreen. Remember in the 1999 version of The Mummy when Imhotep would yell and his mouth would expand and look all funny? ALL of the creatures in this film do that, and it was to the point that I had to stop drinking my juice due to laughing so much. I cannot fear something that is so blatantly fake like that. If you’re a purist, you are expecting these things to be vampires, but it’s never really specified what they are. We know they eat people, but are they vamps or zombies? They look more like mummy-zombie mashups to me(let’s call them zummies!), but it’s never really explained, and truthfully, I didn’t feel that it needed to be explained. There are some good jump moments, particularly when Neville has to follow his dog into a dark building populated with zummies, but anything suddenly leaping at the camera will make an audience jump. Big deal. It felt like the film was going for artificial scares rather than creating a legitimate feeling of dread and hopelessness.
Remember when I said that the film never sells you completely on Neville being the last human? Turns out, he’s not. Some lady and a kid(who literally has NO lines and serves NO purpose. He…just…sits…there!) show up, and the film just goes completely downhill from there. Although the moment where Neville comprehends that there are two human beings sitting in his house is a nice moment, the rest of it derails the film. We go from an enraged Neville mowing down some zummies with his truck to having a meet-cute conversation about Bob Marley, singing “I shot the sheriff” to the random lady, and quoting Shrek along with the tv as the random kid stares blankly at him. I clocked out at that point. Not only was this woman unnecessary, she was annoying as hell, spouting off about God and believing and faith and all that jazz. I was praying for a zummy to show up and shut her up, but the prayer went unanswered. How’d she even get into the city anyway? We see the bridges are all destroyed, having been blown up in a flashback, so how’d she even get there? It felt like she was a character added at the 11th hour in the scriptwriting phase of the film to justify the ending.
And man, that ending is going to really infuriate fans of the book. I wish that they had shot a more faithful adaptation of the novel, just so I could see how Smith would have played that ending. Instead, we get some BS with Smith pulling a Jesus and saving humanity. Eh. The whole thing felt like one big cop-out, the likes of which I haven’t seen since The Village. It was supposed to be this moving, uplifting thing, but it felt like I had just wasted an hour and a half of my time instead. Bleh.
So, the movie isn’t a total loss. The film is a bit dull at times, the action leaves a lot to be desired, the zummies looked like trash, the random characters thrown in at the end threw the film off-course, and I hated the ending. But, Will Smith was watchable as hell. He had to be, since the film rests entirely on his shoulders. The mediocrity of this film can’t be placed squarely on his shoulders. I do think that a more faithful adaptation would have been more intriguing to watch than what I got today. Not a terrible experience, but it misses it by THIS MUCH.
12 Responses to “[Movie Review] I AM LEGEND”
Well, I was entertained by it. I pretty much blame most of the third act on the studio suits, the woman and kid seems so tacked on. I do hope they get to put out a director’s cut, I’d like to see how the original ending plays out before the reshoots.
And with the ending, I was surprised it wasn’t more Hollywood, as I was fearing. Who knows, maybe in another 20-30 years, we’ll get another version of it. Including this one there have been 4 versions made, 5 if you want to count Night of the Living Dead.
The ending was darker than expected for a Will Smith vehicle, I’ll give them that.
Yeah I can almost completely agree with this review. I went to this because I wanted to see the Dark Knight IMAX preview and I didn’t really expect much from the movie. When it was announced I was excited but I always half expected it to be this kind of forgettable movie. I was even able to forgive the bad CGI but that ending was just so cookie cutter. When they set the trap for Neville I really thought it was going to pick up and be this psychological mind game but instead we got Hulk/Resident Evil zombie dogs. Disappointing. This felt like a mindless summer popcorn flick that’s out of its own season. Don’t get me wrong I really think Will Smith brought his A-game but the material just didn’t meet him half way. People have their complaints about both but 28 Days Later and Children of Men do much better what this movie was trying to accomplish.
I think we are line with our evaluation of the movie – though you are harsher on it than I am.
I agree the ‘Please say Hello’ moment in the video store was the best moment of emotion in the film.
Smith was nailing Neville’s loneliness and as someone who has read the book, it was frustrating to see the tone of the movie catch the book, only to lose it once the women and kid showed up. Arrrgh!
It was like they were struggling to make the ending dark and happy simultaneously. Didn’t work. And I forgot to mention in my review that the forced line at the end that justifies this film’s title is COMPLETELY horrid. Just HORRID. If they wanted to justify the title, they should have stuck to the source material.
Two star rating?
Please, god, I hope you’re wrong. I see this Boxing Day!
Sorry, but I just didn’t enjoy it. Who knows, you liked American Gangster more than I did, so that might be the case here as well.
The ending in Prosetovich’s early draft for this was weak also; that is technically a very good script but if that’s what Hollywood think is compelling then we’re doomed to wasting our money for many more years to come. It put me in mind of Children of Men but without the guts. Apparently it’s been retooled by Akiva Goldsman (yikes) and a key villain removed and so on. Bad news that the woman has remained and the jaw-dropping, ballsy, clever ending of Matheson’s story has been ignored for the cop out that suits demand these days.
This film needed to be gutsy and raw and there are flashes in Smith’s performance as you rightly say, and moments throughout the script that convey the crushing sense of loneliness he faces but it’s not enough.
Another waste of talent and money and story potential then. I tolerated I-Robot but this could have been fantastic. You knew they were copping out when they emphasised it as a remake of The Omega Man though!
A shame.
Great review, Kristina.
Welcome back James! Thought we’d lost ya buddy!
Hey, no. I’ve just had a job, man! I work at a secondary school with kids and stuff. It takes it out of you!
Plus the only film I’ve watched recently at the cinema is The Darjeeling Limited, which was brilliant. But that’s kind of been it.
Anyway, I’m endeavouring to be back.
Aww screw the kids! Hang with us!
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