DVD Review: I Am Legend (2007)

Will Smith, playing Robert Neville, is superb in this fantastic and apocalyptical remake of the Richard Matheson’s novel coming off the back of its previous two movies, The Last Man on Earth and The Omega Man. There is a large difference between the novel and the movie, but both are superb.

Neville and his dog, Sam, appear to be alone in a desolate world dominated by animals after the Krippin virus, suspected to cure cancer, mutates and infects people, creating night creatures somewhat different than Matheson’s vampires. At night, these creatures hunt down the living for food, and Neville must not only survive, but find a cure at his “ground zero”. The novel worked without the dog’s companionship, but the movie worked because of the dog.

When Neville abducts another creature to test his latest experiments to try out his potentially new cure, he lets off the leash an alpha-creature bent on finding and destroying him. But even if Neville can find the cure, how can he bring it to the world when surrounded by monsters who are inches away from killing him? The answer is his legend.

This movie, as great as it is, is not without flaw, one of the most notable being how on earth did Anna get in the city, and how the hell did she get back out again when all the bridges were destroyed? I may be a little biased glorifying this movie as Will Smith usually brings with him memorable movies such as Independence Day, Hancock, I, Robot, and Enemy of the State, making him one of my favourite actors.

(I heard on the grapevine that he has signed on the dotted line for a sequel to the movie as well as a Hancock sequel, and a new type of bogeyman film).

My biggest complaint about this movie is the character Anna, played by Alice Braga. I felt she brought very little to the movie, and as such, the second half was severely undermined. It wasn’t the acting but the scripting. It also felt like there had to be a substitution for Neville’s dog, Samantha. When Neville goes out in his car to run down the creatures, it seemed too out of character to believe. As one gets to know Anna and the fact she has a direct line to God, it severely dilutes the film’s impact and gets worse when Neville himself starts to believe her after three years of isolation.

I highly recommend this film. There are few movies I watch frequently, but I Am Legend is one of few I have seen time and time again, and many times yet to come.