I AM LEGEND

a film review by Malik Isasis









It was a cold, slushy night when I decided to trek out into the elements in Manhattan to see yet another movie that destroys New York City. Another is coming next month called Cloverfield. Filmmakers love destroying New York City on celluloid. Digital effects have allowed filmmakers to act like little children knocking over legos, most often sacrificing story development to CGI effects. Maybe it’s because New York has so many things to knock over.

Robert Neville (Will Smith) with his German Shepard, Sam spend his days trying to normalize the fact that he is the only living being in New York City and possibly the world, as far as he knows. Neville and Sam drive through the haunted city, in which we are constantly aware of by the sight of the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges lying eerily at the bottom of the Hudson River; the concrete jungle has literarily become a jungle as lions hunt deer.

Like in 28 Days Later and its predecessor 28 Weeks Later, New York City like London is a wasteland. There’s nothing like dystopia to bring out the worst and the best in the human race.

Will Smith is affecting in the role of Robert Neville who loses everything and carries the burden of finding a cure to virus that has caused humans to devolutionize and become enraged zombie/vampire like creatures. I Am Legend is an allegory and it reflects humanity’s preoccupation with destroying itself, and the hubris in which humanity has extricated itself from the animal world to play God (See George Bush for details).

Director Francis Lawrence (Constantine) uses CGI effects, effectively when envisioning New York as a wasteland; however, the CGI falls flat when used to replace actors. All of the zombie/vampire creatures were all computer-generated images, and it came off as such. Filmmakers of Lawrence’s ilk need not to be so lazy and cast humans. It worked just fine in the 28 Days Later series.

This is Will Smith’s best acting. In Legend he is not relying on his charm as in other films. He is able to capture the isolation, and desperation of a man who is able to flee into the recesses of his imagination to have relationships with his dog and inanimate objects.

What drives us? The need to be loved and wanted; when we are not loved and wanted, we die. We are social beings. I Am Legend captured the isolation that makes the thought of being the only person in the world, down right scary…scary enough to recommend it.


Grade B+

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