I Am Legend, directed by Francis Lawrence, USA, 2007. Review by Sean on 1/8/08.
Ah, for the good old days when all Will Smith had to do to save humanity was fly Jeff Goldblum’s computer into an alien mothership. Now there’s a supervirus and global devastation and complex animal testing and oh so much inner pain. And Jeff Goldblum is presumed dead, so I guess we’re really screwed.
We join humanity in 2010, where a humble and photogenic doctor (Emma Thompson, uncredited) claims to have cured cancer by turning the measles virus into a good guy, set to devour cancer cells happily and painlessly. In a plot jump that’s never explained, we fast forward to the evacuation of New York after the vaccine has turned back to the dark side, killed a bunch of people, and become airborne. Smith, as soldier/scientist/all-around paragon of humanity Robert Neville (immune to the disease) is ushering his family off the island, eager to stay at “ground zero” (now where have I heard that before?) and continue looking for a cure. Another big fast forward, and Neville is the last man on earth, scavenging for food and entertainment with his lovable dog Sam by day, defending against mutated evil zombie virus things and still searching for a cure by night. These early scenes (the best shots of which you’ve seen ad nauseum in the previews) are when the film is at its best; Manhattan abandoned (CGI enhanced though it may be) is unnerving and eerie, and the meditative pace of these early scenes allows the viewer to explore Neville’s frame of mind and re-imagine the oft-Twilight-Zoned scenario of being the last human alive.
As things grow more complicated, the monsters become organized (a branch of the plot that should’ve been more fleshed out,) Neville becomes closer to a cure, and sanity begins to go by the wayside. The film occasionally diverts into dull horror, more jump-out-of-the-dark scares than true suspense. Someone really needs to send a memo to Hollywood: not being able to see shit on screen is not scary, it’s just irritating. It’s always scarier when you can see everything.
The point of I Am Legend, if there is one, is how humanity is going to get out of this mess. The plot stumbles repeatedly through the second and third acts, but through a Signs-esque series of connections and a saccharine epilogue, we learn that the search for a cure was apparently what all this business was about. Neville at one point angrily exclaims, “God didn’t do this – we did.” Unfortunately, it is God who swoops in to save the day in the end, so what appears to be a mild-mannered action film is, in fact, a great big scream of “Science bad, religion good!” An awfully conservative film for the normally socially conscious Will Smith.
Smith’s performance is spot on, and Francis Lawrence’s direction is powerful and sincere. The attention to detail and nuance in the early scenes actually borders on delightful – one might have a more enjoyable time following all the sly cultural references in the first act than actually keeping up with the plot. A muddy script and an ugly message, however, are enough to sink this ship.
Rating: 2.5 Screens (Out of 5)
