Warner Bros. Pictures release
Di rected by: Francis Lawrence
Starring: Will Smith, Alice Braga,
Dash Mihok, Charlie Tahan, Abbey
Running time: 110 minutes
Classified: R
It is fairly safe to say that at this point, the genome has replaced the atom as the ultimate symbol of humanity’s collective anxiety. The story of our scientific progress will not be that of Prometheus, liberating the huddled masses with fire from the gods, but of Icarus, dashed to bits from a thousand foot fall with nothing to show for it but a pool of melted wax. A combination of recent biological research and the end of the Cold War could be an explanation for why the fear of nuclear annihilation has taken a back seat to that of the genetically engineered plague in the minds of the post-apocalyptic moviemaker.
“I Am Legend,” directed by Francis Lawrence, joins movies such as “28 Days Later” and “Resident Evil” in portraying a world devastated by an engineered disease that has turned rational, decent people into slavering, mindless, cannibals. While the particulars are different – this time it’s a cancer vaccine gone horribly wrong – the overall premise of survival in a world where man is suddenly and unexpectedly prey remains the same. The film’s place in a genre whose ranks seems to be swelling by the season, however, should not be taken as evidence of poor quality. Indeed, “I Am Legend” stands out as an extraordinary film in and of itself because it both pays heed to genre conventions and at the same time is not bound by them. It’s a film just as much about the sheer will to survive and the things we do in the meantime, as it is about plague-ridden monsters jumping out at unexpected moments.
The movie opens with a news report about the discovery of what is touted as a cure for cancer. Using a genetically engineered strain of measles, health journalists triumphantly declare the end of one of humanity’s most intractable foes. Three years later, and the world is a ghost town. New York City is silent for the first time in centuries. The Brooklyn Bridge has collapsed into the Hudson River. Corn grows wild in Central Park. Herds of deer roam wild in the streets, swiftly darting between cars that have been empty for years. Most cars, that is. One, however, stands as the exception to the rule, and as we see it speeding down the road, its driver would rack up countless traffic violations if there were only anyone else around to care.
This is how we are introduced to Robert Neville (Will Smith) and his dog Sam (Abbey, a 3-year-old German shepherd). He is trying to hunt, though he’s not very good at it.
Neville, a military scientists who had been personally involved with the plague but is immune to it, is, as far as he knows, the last living human on Earth. He works tirelessly to find a cure for the plague that killed most people and left the rest as hairless, bloodthirsty zombies. One of the most intriguing aspects of this movie is just seeing how he lives day to day in this post-apocalyptic landscape.
He starts his morning with vigorous exercise. Following this, he goes into the basement, where he has set up a full biomedical research lab, complete with infected test animals on which to try his myriad attempts to reverse the plague. After his inevitable disappointment, he drives to the corner video store and returns the DVDs he has watched the night before. He makes small talk with the mannequins he has set up there and throughout the city, before selecting a new movie. He could just bring entire handfuls of movies with him, but that’s not the point. What’s important is the retention of the trappings of the civilization that used to be there. He then broadcasts, on all AM frequencies, a desperate call for any other survivors to make themselves known. None have ever come. After this, Neville might hunt or forage, golf off the deck of the USS Intrepid, or search for test subjects for his experiments.
His day’s adventures, however, must always come to an end by dusk. That is when the infected, who abhor sunlight, are free to roam the streets and will tear to pieces any human they catch. During the night, he must barricade his doors and windows and curl up with his dog and his gun, and hope that this night won’t be the night they finally find him.
Will Smith, usually known for his animated and energetic acting, does remarkably well in a role that requires, more than anything else, restraint. For the vast majority of the movie, he is the only actor on screen, and while carrying virtually an entire movie by oneself might seem like a weighty acting challenge, Smith pulls it off with aplomb. His performance is subdued without being deadpan. The impression his characterization gives is someone who gamely attempts to retain a sanity that inexorably erodes by the day.
One point about this movie that cannot be ignored is that it is a film that rewards the perceptive. Little points about the film’s world are revealed through details that can slip past someone not paying attention. Newspaper clippings are everywhere and provide explication on the setting itself without resorting to out-and-out telling the audience things. Other details are simply nice touches that enhance the setting – the price of gas around the time of the apocalypse, for example, was about $6.63 a gallon.
The movie clocks in at 110 minutes but feels much longer than that. It presents a slow boil, with the infected not even making their first actual appearance until about halfway into the movie. From there, things begin to escalate and become more tense as complication begins to pile upon complication. The ending, a bullet-ridden special-effects spectacular, does come on rather suddenly, as if the writer realized that they only had 15 minutes of movie left and they needed to wrap it up, and the epilogue does kind of seem like a feel-good cop-out. Further, I’m still wondering why there are lions in New York City – are they escapees from the Bronx Zoo?
These lingering points aside, though, “I Am Legend” is a well-made and exciting movie that should appeal to dedicated fans of post-apocalyptic zombie movies and casual viewers alike.