Monday, December 17, 2007

I Am Legend: Will Smith Proves His Inch is Worth a Mile

Will Smith a single trait in acting I can recall from every one of his movies: He can act alone. That's delivering jokes (Independence Day), dramatic dialogue , and narrative (Pursuit of Happiness). In I Am Legend, he is asked to perform them all solo, without a dog and computer-generated zombies to fight him. He delivers, and the movie, for the most part, delivers as well.

Smith plays soldier/scientist Robert Neville, who stands alone in isolated Manhattan with his dog, Sam, three years after a cure for cancer has turned everyone on Earth into vampire-zombies. He goes through a routine of working-out, entertaining himself through the entire Blockbuster store, eating, hunting deer in a race car, and performing a lockdown of his Greenwitch house each night, complete with steel shutters. As we're informed later, only 10 percent of the world was immune to the airborne part of the viruse, which got infected when the other 90 percent of the world bit them. Neville is the only survivor immune to both airborne and bite-given infections.

The monsters are zombies in the sense they're mostly mindless and disease-ridden. They're endless hordes we hear surround Neville's house give an idea of the typical zombie movie where it's a few against the world, only now it's only one against the world. The monsters are vampires in the sense light burns their eyes and sunlight burns their skin, as well as they can climb on anything and jump really far.

The movie has a great start and loses it after a certain point about an hour and ten minutes into it. The monsters are not seen, but heard. Then they're glanced at before its darkness. Then we hear them and the running begins. A fear of the dark is conveyed very well in these scenes. It shows where horror and disgusting pain can go without showing explicit gore and blood.

Equally impressive is Smith's acting alone. He handles the isolation well, but se can see where he makes efforts to keep his character's sanity as he hangs by a thread. There is a scene where he loses his nerve for a second, which is blown out of the water when he does breakdown completely and decides to go out at night with UV lights on car and mow down as many of the infected as he can.

Regrettably, you can't top the unseen horrors with half-decent CGI of hairless humans and Smith can only breakdown so far. So if he is alive afterwards, what is left in a movie that has built itself up on one man's loneliness and desperate struggle to survive alone? The answer is either a disappointing climax or a turn-around that changes the movie we already thought was worth sitting in for an hour.

Before I end this review, I would like to say, Yes, there is a scene where the monsters strike Smith's house. It is well prepared and entertaining to see the layers of defense he has ready, only I don't think we saw enough. If you had three years and went so far to defend the place you sleep every night, wouldn't you spend even more time on your security system until you stopped having trouble sleeping?

Entertaining? Yes, but loses itself after the first hour and ten minutes to be watered down from it's initial greatness.

For everyone? Yes. Bloodless and almost no gore allows everyone to appreciate the same horror and action. Whether you be simple or deep analyst, everyone understands what Smith's Neville is going through.

Memorable? Not quite. The idea isn't original as it is a modern, realist remake of The Omega Man and The Last Man on Earth. The scenes of a deserted, three-year decayed New York City will probably outlive the loneliness Smith's performance betrayed by a cliche ending.

My suggestion? Horror and action fans will love the concept and enjoy the movie, but it's nothing to make a long drive for. Better action scenes are in No Country for Old Men's two shoot-outs and a similiar concept used better in Children of Men. If the plot didn't hook you, you'll probably appreciate the upcoming National Treasure: Book of Secrets as better entertainment.

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