Review of "I AM LEGEND" the Movie (by La Suki)

[Suki]

I recently have seen "I am Legend" with Will Smith. For those of you who have not seen it yet and don't want me to do a spoiler I suggest you stop reading now.

The movie's premise is about an American soldier/Scientist who lives in the not too far distant future. A woman scientist played in a cameo by Emma Thompson has invented the 'cure' for cancer. Somehow she invents a virus and genetically engineers it and it is considered revolutionary and a cure for cancer. Instead it genetically alters human beings and makes them become some kind of highly aggressive, light sensitive and aberrant to sunlight vampire/zombies. It is a highly contagious virus that is contagious through direct contact and can spread via the air and easily becomes airborne. Dogs also can be infected by the virus. Within a three year period most of the human population on Earth succumbs to this virus and only approximately 10% of human beings are immune to the virus. The remaining 10% are then cannibalized for blood by the remaining zombie/vampire majority. I know it sounds like a really B-Movie with not much going for it. But I liked the movie.

What makes the movie engaging is how the protagonist Will Smith and his German Shepherd dog Sam live out their lonely lives in an overrun NYC. The city streets have herds of deer running in and out of abandoned traffic jammed immobilized vehicles, and natural predators let loose---presumably ancestors of the zoo predators who now are part of the natural environment. Most of the city is silent and abandoned. Smith's character systemically calls on the radio in the hope of finding survivors of the virus as well. Smith is one of the few humans who is immune to both types of the virus but his dog is immune to only the airborne virus and not the direct contact form of the virus. Will Smith's character is a scientist who constantly tries to find a cure for the zombie/vampires and whom he hopes to reverse their dominance now of the city and of the planet. This movie should not be categorized as an adventure movie or just a simple action film. This is a classic horror genre film. The zombie/vampires are really quite scary in a most subconscious doom-filled and hopeless way. They are stripped of any finer or nobler human qualities and really are a metaphor for the dark side and aggressively destructive and consumeristic nature of modern human beings living in the twenty first century. I think the movie has a lot of social commentary displayed in interesting ways.

There is an aspect of the movie in which science and religion are both questioned. Science for believing too much in its own 'greatness' and religion for believing too much in the all powerful 'saving' God and not realizing human beings create many of their own troubles and should not use God as an excuse or an escape for their own 'hubris'. Smith closes down his home like Fort Knox around 5:30pm every night when the sun goes down in NYC. That is when the vampires go 'hunting'. Smith goes hunting for fresh meat as well since the infrastructure collapses and there are no 'butchers' and fresh meat, eggs and milk is not really available anymore. Just a lot of long shelf life stuff that is not meat based since the vampires are carnivores. Canned stuff. The movie is really interesting in the sense that the details are what makes one believe such a hard to believe premise. The weeds growing massively in the streets, the abandoned areas of NYC overrun with wild life....so many details. The dog dies defending his master from attack of Vampire Zombie dogs and it is a very tear jerking scene for dog lovers like I am. At the end Smith does find a woman and child survivor. A Brazilian woman (and may I say that she saves the human race at the end). A Latina saving the human race is a nice ending. I won't tell you the whole details of who dies, and who lives, and how the ending goes down---but what makes the movie very interesting are the small details such as, Smith getting hurt and getting in trouble (because after all he is alone and in a very vulnerable situation) and then becoming suicidal, even though he is a level headed scientist that makes this story very engaging. I did not expect it to be. Smith also has flashbacks about the day he lost his wife and daughter while they were trying to flee from the city and the ensuing chaos of the virus. I found the flashbacks a little too disjointed and distracting. I would have liked to have more of Will Smith and his scientific hit and misses emphasized and maybe his interactions with the survivor lady Ana as a secondary character who would have had him open up about his past as a better device for furthering the plot. Smith's flashbacks were annoying in my opinion.

I hope you give your opinion on a movie you might have recently seen in theaters or rented on DVD or video recently. Thanks.

Suki.

[Stanley]

Suki:

I saw the movie and I liked Will Smith a lot. My wife adores him too.

However, I was turned off because it is very similar to a movie called "28 Days Later" that came out in 2000. The plot is very similar and in the end the savior is a black English female. The movie takes place in London rather than NYC. To be honest, I enjoyed 28 Days Later a whole lot more. Seeing a blatant copy of the original took all the fun away. In addition the original has the foreign flavor in movies that tends to be more artistic than the American formula. Nevertheless Hollywood did a good job, particularly with the fate of Will Smith-----------That was un-American.

Guide Review - "28 Days Later" DVD Review
"28 Days Later" is that rare horror movie that critics actually rave about. Why? Because it takes an existing premise (the spread of a virus turns victims into flesh-eating zombies) and tags a surprise twist loaded with social commentary onto it.

Refreshing newcomers Cillian Murphy and Naomie Harris star as two survivors of the virus who must fight to stay alive. Joining up with other non-infected strangers, they travel throughout London trying to escape from the murderous zombies. Just when you think you've got a handle on the movie, it becomes something much more than a typical 'horror' story.