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Francis Lawrence, I Am Legend

by Kathryn Durfee
12/15/2007

Every day, Robert Neville and his dog Sam wake up, exercise, pick out a DVD at the video store, play a bit of golf, and have a quiet dinner at home. And every evening, Neville completely covers all of his windows and descends into his lab to try and find a cure for the virus that has ravaged the human population and turned many people into vampire-like zombies that roam the city at night in their search for flesh.

Neville, a brilliant military scientist and one of the lucky (though this could be debated) few to be immune to the virus that ravaged the world three years earlier is played by the ever-charismatic Will Smith in Francis Lawrence's I Am Legend. Through flashbacks, we learn that a cure for cancer was found in the year 2009. This treatment, however, soon turned into an unstoppable wave of death. Ninety percent of the world's population died, less than one percent seem to be immune, and the rest have turned into horrible creatures that feed on the surviving population. Neville, stationed in Manhattan, appears to be the lone survivor.

Legend is based on the 1954 novel of the same name by Richard Matheson. The book has been made into a movie before: 1964's The Last Man on Earth starring the delightfully creepy (and somewhat vampire-ish himself) Vincent Price. In 1971, the book was adapted again, this time called The Omega Man, starring Charlton Heston.

Even though director Lawrence has, except for 2005's Constantine, worked only on music videos, he handles this full-length feature well. The scenes of a deserted Manhattan in which weeds grow through cracks in the pavement and wild animals roam are more haunting than the scene of a deserted Times Square in Vanilla Sky. Lawrence proves he's got some sci-fi/scary movie potential here, keeping viewers at the edge of their seats and wondering what will come next.

Legend features several overt political and religious themes, which makes it seem like an odd choice for Smith, who usually takes part in more family-oriented roles. He handles the role well, much as Tom Hanks did in Cast Away. Neville is a family man for whom honestly, hard work, and self-sacrifice come first. He seems to believe that he alone is responsible for paying for humanity's hubris, and that he must stay in New York City because that was his assignment. He frequently refers to the city as "Ground Zero," recalling post-9/11 anxieties.

There is another side to his character though; he fulfills his post-apocalyptical fantasies by hanging Van Gogh paintings in his home (who else is going to appreciate them?) and helping himself to weapons, food, and other supplies from empty homes. Along with his obsession with finding a cure (using his own immune blood) for the situation that now seems hopeless, Neville is beginning a descent into madness. He keeps extensive video and audio records of everything he does in his lab, maintains a broadcast over all AM frequencies, and makes daily video logs of his life in this broken world. His German Shepherd is his best friend, his family, and his protection.

As great as the story and acting is, Legend falls short in the special effects department. Explosions, scenes of an empty and overgrown New York City are fantastic, but the vampires have that terribly cheesy CGI gloss to them. I suppose we are all spoiled by Gollum, but not every production can devote the time, money, and manpower needed to pull off such an accomplishment in computer graphics. Before the vampires are actually seen, Legend maintains a creepy and eerie "what are these things?" vibe. Once we get a glimpse of the creatures, however, the film loses some of its spunk. Earlier and creepier vampire movies have been made with regular people in great make-up; just because we have the technology to render CGI vampires doesn't mean we should.

The minimal plot holes can all be accounted for by the age-old requirement for watching movies: suspension of disbelief. It is never explained why Neville is immune to the virus, but without at least one survivor, there wouldn't be a story, now would there? In addition, the Infected seem to be a lot smarter than Neville believes. He claims that, through research and observation, all human traits and tendencies have vanished and that they have degraded to these terrible half-life beings. I suppose their cleverness can be attributed to pure instinct: hunt, kill, eat.

Like Spielberg's recent War of the Worlds, I Am Legend is a glimpse into the unknown future of an increasingly technological world. Despite the very few holes and slightly disappointing CGI vampires, Legend is one of the most exciting films of the year and one of the few to be well worth the ticket price.