Tagline: After a virus wipes out mankind, Robert Neville is the last man alive. But he is not alone.
Disclaimer: Richard Matheson purists be warned…you won’t be happy with this film.
But for everyone else, strap in, lean back and hold on tight because I AM LEGEND is one helluva terrifying ride.
Let’s be honest here, anyone that’s a horror fan devoured Matheson’s novel at a young age and had a guilty pleasure while sitting through The Omega Man. I remember back in 1995 getting excited when there were murmurs in Hollywood of Ridley Scott remaking this with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Tell me that would’ve been cool in the nineties, maybe not so much today. The buzz subsided and the project became a whisper. Flash forward to ten years later and one comic adaptation in the can for director Francis Lawrence (Constantine), I Am Legend became the talk of the town again. And the Fresh Prince of Bel Air made it come to fruition.
I was skeptical walking into the WGA screening of this a couple weeks back. Akiva Goldsman, the mastermind behind Batman & Robin, & Mark Protosevich (Poseidon, The Cell) collaborating on a cult classic. Aye yi yi. But I kept my mind open knowing that they steered away from Matheson’s vampires and spun a new yarn and legend in Robert Neville.
The very first frame of an un-credited cameo of Emma Thompson discussing her medical breakthrough of manipulating a virus to combat Cancer was compelling and thought provoking. It was beyond eerie. I kept thinking of Del Toro’s 1997 flick Mimic and was instantly engaged in the updated version of Legend. After her national debriefing, we cut to an abandoned New York that looked straight out of Gilliam’s Twelve Monkeys.
We’re introduced to Smith’s Robert Neville and his devoted dog. His voiceover pieces the events together and his dream sequences are good transitions with flashbacks to the destruction of society. Think Castaway and replace Wilson with the dog. Smith does an extremely good job carrying this film. His daily routine of working out, hunting, gathering and broadcasting his current position over the radio gives the audience a true sense of the dread he faces. The filmmakers seemed to have a good time with the dystopian future, pay close attention to the Times Square billboards and look for a fan boy’s dream of an epic…hint: Batman and Superman logos are involved.
Neville’s day comes to an end when the alarm on his watch chimes. Dusk is approaching. He hurries back to his dwelling and secures it for the night as he and the dog sleep in a cast iron tub with animalistic screaming outside. This sequence is quite effective. The next day, they’re out playing golf on a fighter jet when they spy a deer. Neville and the dog give chase as the deer disappears inside a building. Neville’s dog races in after as he yells for it to stop. He follows it in the dark and abandoned place. No music score, only Neville’s nervous breaths, the audience is a voyeur sneaking behind our hero’s back. As he approaches a ‘nest’ of infected, Neville quietly retreats and finds his dog as they chase him out of the building.
This serves as our first encounter with the disconnection of Matheson’s source material. The filmmakers decided to make the infected have rabies instead of being vampires. It’s an interesting thought, but my liking the concept dissipated because I began wondering why the rabid individuals would only come out at night? Looks like Akiva Goldsman didn’t think about that while re-writing this. Daylight has no effect on rabid animals.
But then again, one must suspend disbelief.
From here the story digs into the how & why of the epidemic, Neville’s research and his immunity. The film carries through to the rushed third act with Anna and Ethan as it deviates quite a bit from the book. That’s going to be the major criticism of this updated film.
In the end, I AM LEGEND is a uniquely fresh & gripping film with plenty of scares to quench the appetites of horror deviants all around.
After doing some digging, here are a couple links to the original drafts of the script before Akiva Goldsman got involved. One is by John Logan (Gladiator, Any Given Sunday, Bats, The Aviator, and the upcoming Sweeney Todd) http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/clarke/38/scripts/IAmLegend.txt & the other is by Mark Protosevich by himself, http://www.horrorlair.com/scripts/legend.txt.
Will Smith, the heralded ‘King of Summer’ has now drawn blood as he stakes out a new crown as the Legend of winter holidays. I Am Legend is here to whet our appetites before the bloodletting of Sweeney Todd and the silent night/deadly night war of Aliens vs. Predator-Requiem on Xmas Day.
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
