I Am Legend
Is it wrong to argue that Will Smith may be the most bankable name in Hollywood now? It seems as though anything he stars in- be it mindless action (“Independence Day”), zany comedy (“Men in Black”), romantic leads (“Hitch”), and tough drama (“The Pursuit of Happyness”)- turns into box-office gold. Plus, he’s also taking chances in the process (such as “Ali”), which leads me to “I Am Legend,” his latest large-scale actioner (his first since the underrated “I, Robot”). On the surface, it seems like your average Will Smith blockbuster- big effects, big action, big Will- but it’s really a high-wire act in audacity. More on that in a second.
Like “I, Robot,” “Legend” is based on a classic novel- in this case, the sci-fi classic by Richard Matheson about a military scientist who, after a freak medical accident, is the only living person left on Earth. Alone with his dog Samantha, Smith’s Robert Neville scours the empty streets of New York City for food and supplies, while every day going out to one of the piers to send out a radio frequency if any survivors exist. That’s his daily routine, however; at night, we come to realize that he’s not alone. Let’s just say that he does what he can to protect himself and Sam in the dark of night. Going outside is not an option.
If “I Am Legend” had come out 4-5 years ago, before Danny Boyle’s zombie landmark “28 Days Later” and Zack Snyder’s visceral “Dawn of the Dead” remake, I might have found its story more involving (even though Matheson’s book was clearly the inspiration for those two). But while Smith kept me glued to the screen with his one-man tour de force star turn (he’s alone onscreen most of the time), and director Francis Lawrence (who made the underrated “Constantine” back in 2005) presents a hauntingly beautiful vision of the Big Apple in ruins (the Best Visual Effects Oscar just got more interesting), the story of man vs. zombie loses some of the impact it might have had in previous years because of recent successes in the genre. I was intrigued on the whole (set pieces with Neville and Sam in a dark building, and a race-against-time before sunset pack a punch) and the ending didn’t throw me nearly as much as “The Mist’s,” although it’s surely just as controversial among fanboys, but didn’t quite go with Will all the way the way I did with Tom Hanks in “Cast Away,” where he, too, was alone for much of the movie. The film tells the story enough- it’s the third time onscreen for Matheson’s story after “The Last Man on Earth” and “The Omega Man”- and it’s an entertaining piece of popcorn (if a bit bleak), but it feels as though it’s nothing we haven’t seen before, as opposed to what it should be, which is something we’ve never seen before.
