More Movie Reviews! (I am Legend)
I wait for the day when my friends tire of me saying "In the original story...". It seems that I've been doing that a lot lately. Anyway, I haven't actually read the original book. I only knew why it was called 'I am legend' because I read a summary on wikipedia. As I thought that it sounded like a near plot device, and as I generally like vampire / zombie movies, I figured it would be worth seeing.
The first half of "I am Legend" is a pretty solid thriller. Will Smith plays Robert Neville, the last man alive in New York City. Three or four years ago, a new miracle cancer drug was developed. However, this drug soon formed the basis for a virus that turned humans into 'dark seekers' that would be burned by sunlight, had increased aggression, and lost all sense of self. The virus could be transmitted by air or by physical contact. As the first cases were found in NYC, NYC was drastically (and irrevoccably. Talk about burning your bridges...) quarantined by the Gov't. Will Smith, a soldier and scientist who happens to be immune to the virus, was involved in the project to work on a treatment for it. He continues to do this, despite the fact that he has had no human companionship for three years. However, he tries to live a normal life, and has what passes for a routine. He wakes up, opens up the reinforced steel windows and doors installed on his home, exercises, has breakfast, goes out to the local video rental store and gets the next DVD on his list, hunts for food, and does experiments on rats in his basement to try to figure out a cure. Every day, he broadcasts a message on all AM frequencies, giving his name, location, and imploring anyone who hears it to contact him. His only friend is his dog, who faithfully follows her eccentric owner wherever he goes.
Now, as he hasn't spoken to another human in years, Robert Neville doesn't have much of a social life. He set up mannequins in the video store, a sort of parody of real life. He greets them in the morning when he gets there, talks with his dog about his shyness (as he doesn't go up and talk to the pretty one), and has various one-sided conversations with the lifeless mannequins. The audience laughed uproariously at these events. I mean, I guess, on one level, they're kind of funny, if the character realizes he is talking to dolls and this is just his way of coping. My suspicion was that Robert Neville is already half-mad, because of his desperation in trying to get the mannequin at the register to say something, anything to him. Later on, when one of the mannequins is mysteriously moved, he goes ballistic. Again, the audience laughed at him yelling at the mannequin and asking what he was doing across town. And, again, I found myself empathizing with the character - I mean, one of the constants of his life, one of the things he relied on, was just inexplicably changed, even though there was no one else in the city that could have moved it. That would be very unsettling.
The first half of the movie that showcases Robert's daily life, his efforts at achieving normalcy in a broken world, and his attempts to cure the "dark seekers" *cough* vampires *cough*, was very good. I thought the movie would go in the direction of exploring his fragile psychology and the growing self-awareness of those affected by the virus (there is a scene in which he notes that a vampire took an illogical risk, which hints that the vampire wasn't a senseless, violent maniac. Robert Neville saw this, but was too set in his thoughts that they are just ravening beasts to give it much consideration. I thought, 'good foreshadowing').
Alas! The movie does not go in this direction, and in fact becomes a run-of-the-mill 'characters must survive a vampire/zombie assault' movie. The vampires do little more than roar, and display no more sophistication than a mob that decides to track its prey. The turning point for the movie is when Robert Neville, in a state of despair, decides to kill himself and take as many vampires down with him as he can. He is rescued by some other humans, who have somehow heard his broadcast and gotten an SUV onto quarantined NYC (where the bridges were literally blown up).
The movie also inexplicably goes into 'faith mode' in the last half-hour, with someone telling Robert Neville that she 'heard from God' about a 'survivors colony in Vermont'. I say inexplicably because nothing had been mentioned about God or having faith earlier in the movie. I mean, sure, Robert had Hope, it was what kept his going. But, the drive to finish the job you started and the fact that you've got nothing else in your life are entirely different than having faith that God has a plan. After an impassioned speech in which Robert tells the new character that there is no God, he notices various 'signs' during the zombie assault that this is the way things are supposed to go, and willingly gives himself up to fate. This really took a lot away from the movie, in my mind.
In the original story, Robert Neville kills vampires with abandon. He sees them as abominations and hunts them during the day. However, some of the vampires have retained hold of their consciousness, and they live in fear of him coming in the day while they sleep and murdering them. It turns out there is a whole society of still-aware vampires. They manage to communicate with him, and then capture him. He realizes at the end of the novel that as vampires were mythical beasts that preyed on humans when they slept, so he has become a legendary monster, for he preys on vampires when they are defenseless. Thus, the title "I am Legend".
The movie's explanation for the title sucked.
So, all told, I'd give the movie a 7. I really liked the first half of the movie. Because the movie was set in 2013, there were various signs in the city and ticker reports on the news that told things about the near future (stuff like "Shaq says he will retire at the end of the 2010 season"). Because of little touches like this, the world and setup they made felt very good and very real. However, in my opinion, the second half is dissatisfying, and, ultimately, just kind of average.
The first half of "I am Legend" is a pretty solid thriller. Will Smith plays Robert Neville, the last man alive in New York City. Three or four years ago, a new miracle cancer drug was developed. However, this drug soon formed the basis for a virus that turned humans into 'dark seekers' that would be burned by sunlight, had increased aggression, and lost all sense of self. The virus could be transmitted by air or by physical contact. As the first cases were found in NYC, NYC was drastically (and irrevoccably. Talk about burning your bridges...) quarantined by the Gov't. Will Smith, a soldier and scientist who happens to be immune to the virus, was involved in the project to work on a treatment for it. He continues to do this, despite the fact that he has had no human companionship for three years. However, he tries to live a normal life, and has what passes for a routine. He wakes up, opens up the reinforced steel windows and doors installed on his home, exercises, has breakfast, goes out to the local video rental store and gets the next DVD on his list, hunts for food, and does experiments on rats in his basement to try to figure out a cure. Every day, he broadcasts a message on all AM frequencies, giving his name, location, and imploring anyone who hears it to contact him. His only friend is his dog, who faithfully follows her eccentric owner wherever he goes.
Now, as he hasn't spoken to another human in years, Robert Neville doesn't have much of a social life. He set up mannequins in the video store, a sort of parody of real life. He greets them in the morning when he gets there, talks with his dog about his shyness (as he doesn't go up and talk to the pretty one), and has various one-sided conversations with the lifeless mannequins. The audience laughed uproariously at these events. I mean, I guess, on one level, they're kind of funny, if the character realizes he is talking to dolls and this is just his way of coping. My suspicion was that Robert Neville is already half-mad, because of his desperation in trying to get the mannequin at the register to say something, anything to him. Later on, when one of the mannequins is mysteriously moved, he goes ballistic. Again, the audience laughed at him yelling at the mannequin and asking what he was doing across town. And, again, I found myself empathizing with the character - I mean, one of the constants of his life, one of the things he relied on, was just inexplicably changed, even though there was no one else in the city that could have moved it. That would be very unsettling.
The first half of the movie that showcases Robert's daily life, his efforts at achieving normalcy in a broken world, and his attempts to cure the "dark seekers" *cough* vampires *cough*, was very good. I thought the movie would go in the direction of exploring his fragile psychology and the growing self-awareness of those affected by the virus (there is a scene in which he notes that a vampire took an illogical risk, which hints that the vampire wasn't a senseless, violent maniac. Robert Neville saw this, but was too set in his thoughts that they are just ravening beasts to give it much consideration. I thought, 'good foreshadowing').
Alas! The movie does not go in this direction, and in fact becomes a run-of-the-mill 'characters must survive a vampire/zombie assault' movie. The vampires do little more than roar, and display no more sophistication than a mob that decides to track its prey. The turning point for the movie is when Robert Neville, in a state of despair, decides to kill himself and take as many vampires down with him as he can. He is rescued by some other humans, who have somehow heard his broadcast and gotten an SUV onto quarantined NYC (where the bridges were literally blown up).
The movie also inexplicably goes into 'faith mode' in the last half-hour, with someone telling Robert Neville that she 'heard from God' about a 'survivors colony in Vermont'. I say inexplicably because nothing had been mentioned about God or having faith earlier in the movie. I mean, sure, Robert had Hope, it was what kept his going. But, the drive to finish the job you started and the fact that you've got nothing else in your life are entirely different than having faith that God has a plan. After an impassioned speech in which Robert tells the new character that there is no God, he notices various 'signs' during the zombie assault that this is the way things are supposed to go, and willingly gives himself up to fate. This really took a lot away from the movie, in my mind.
In the original story, Robert Neville kills vampires with abandon. He sees them as abominations and hunts them during the day. However, some of the vampires have retained hold of their consciousness, and they live in fear of him coming in the day while they sleep and murdering them. It turns out there is a whole society of still-aware vampires. They manage to communicate with him, and then capture him. He realizes at the end of the novel that as vampires were mythical beasts that preyed on humans when they slept, so he has become a legendary monster, for he preys on vampires when they are defenseless. Thus, the title "I am Legend".
The movie's explanation for the title sucked.
So, all told, I'd give the movie a 7. I really liked the first half of the movie. Because the movie was set in 2013, there were various signs in the city and ticker reports on the news that told things about the near future (stuff like "Shaq says he will retire at the end of the 2010 season"). Because of little touches like this, the world and setup they made felt very good and very real. However, in my opinion, the second half is dissatisfying, and, ultimately, just kind of average.