'I Am Legend' Not Legendary
(AP Photo / Kevork Djansezian)
Actor Will Smith poses for a photo in Los Angeles. Smith stars in the new film "I Am Legend."
Grade: C
By STEWART SMITH
TylerPaper.com
In this third film adaptation of Richard Matheson’s novel, “I Am Legend,” Will Smith plays scientist Robert Neville, the last man on Earth after a deadly virus sweeps the country and, possibly, the world.
He spends his days doing what he must to survive while also performing research in hopes of finding a cure for the infected – mutated victims of the plague that wiped out most of humanity. His nights are spent barricaded inside his home as the violent, savage infected only come out once the sun has set. Neville is determined to find a cure to reverse what has happened, but he is quickly running out of time.
While that is certainly one heck of a premise with a lot of promise, I can’t remember the last time I was this indifferent toward a movie. I don’t feel that I wasted my time, necessarily by watching Will Smith do…stuff. By that same token, however, save for a few moments scattered throughout, nothing really left much of an impact on me.
This isn’t too surprising, I suppose, since a large portion of the film is occupied by Smith doing such exciting things as exercising, gathering food, hitting golf balls off the tail of a military jet, doing some research (in a high tech lab somehow located underneath the largest apartment in Manhattan) and driving his nice, shiny Shelby Mustang GT 500 through Times Square as he hunts deer. Yes, you read that last part right. No, I am not kidding.
Neville eventually comes into contact with the infected (we’re left to assume they are vampires given the harmful effect sunlight has on them, though the film never specifically states just what they are), but the encounters feel oddly disconnected save for the final one. In the book the infected have a ringleader of sorts who, along with a horde of other infected, surrounds Neville’s house and taunts him each night. This at least gave Neville some peripheral interaction (such as it was) outside of simply taking care of day-to-day business. Here, for most of the running time Neville only has his trusty German Shepherd, Sam, to keep him company. To Smith’s credit, though, he’s got enough charisma and charm to buoy a large portion of the running time where it’s just him chatting it up with his dog and, amazingly, you genuinely feel the bond between master and canine.
Things finally pick up by the third act, but by that point I had grown so apathetic of everything that had happened before that the climax left little to no impact on me.
So what does the movie get right? As mentioned before, Smith does a good job of keeping things afloat when there’s little else going on (which is most of the time). His most notable work in the film is in displaying Neville’s decaying mental stability -- though I wish director Francis Lawrence (“Constantine”) had dipped a little further into that pool and really dug into how an event like this would affect someone mentally.
If nothing else, Lawrence really nails home the feeling of isolation and loneliness, and there are a few genuine moments of palpable tension. Oh, and nothing is creepier than a completely abandoned New York City.
Admittedly, it’s a risky prospect to put on the screen a story where the main character is the only living human left on the planet as it, obviously, leaves no room for any kind of interaction at all. But with a skilled enough director behind the camera and a compelling actor in front of it, something like that can work as “Cast Away” so aptly proved. Here you’ve got a film that shows promise due to the strength of its lead and the highly intriguing premise. But Lawrence’s mostly tepid direction leaves most of the movie in film purgatory.
All in all, I can’t label this as a bad movie, but it’s not a particularly good one, either. There’s certainly worse ways to spend your money at the cinema. If nothing else, you get to see a great trailer for the new Batman movie, “The Dark Knight.”
"I Am Legend" is showing at the Times Square Cinema, Carmike 14 and Hollywood Cinemas in Tyler, Plaza Cinema 3 in Henderson, Cinemark Cinema 4 in Athens, Jackson Cinema 3 in Jacksonville, and Carmike 10 and Hollywood 14 in Longview.
Stewart Smith is a copy editor with the Tyler Paper as well as a burgeoning film critic and aspiring film historian. He may be reached at simplystew@yahoo.com.
TylerPaper.com
In this third film adaptation of Richard Matheson’s novel, “I Am Legend,” Will Smith plays scientist Robert Neville, the last man on Earth after a deadly virus sweeps the country and, possibly, the world.
He spends his days doing what he must to survive while also performing research in hopes of finding a cure for the infected – mutated victims of the plague that wiped out most of humanity. His nights are spent barricaded inside his home as the violent, savage infected only come out once the sun has set. Neville is determined to find a cure to reverse what has happened, but he is quickly running out of time.
While that is certainly one heck of a premise with a lot of promise, I can’t remember the last time I was this indifferent toward a movie. I don’t feel that I wasted my time, necessarily by watching Will Smith do…stuff. By that same token, however, save for a few moments scattered throughout, nothing really left much of an impact on me.
This isn’t too surprising, I suppose, since a large portion of the film is occupied by Smith doing such exciting things as exercising, gathering food, hitting golf balls off the tail of a military jet, doing some research (in a high tech lab somehow located underneath the largest apartment in Manhattan) and driving his nice, shiny Shelby Mustang GT 500 through Times Square as he hunts deer. Yes, you read that last part right. No, I am not kidding.
Neville eventually comes into contact with the infected (we’re left to assume they are vampires given the harmful effect sunlight has on them, though the film never specifically states just what they are), but the encounters feel oddly disconnected save for the final one. In the book the infected have a ringleader of sorts who, along with a horde of other infected, surrounds Neville’s house and taunts him each night. This at least gave Neville some peripheral interaction (such as it was) outside of simply taking care of day-to-day business. Here, for most of the running time Neville only has his trusty German Shepherd, Sam, to keep him company. To Smith’s credit, though, he’s got enough charisma and charm to buoy a large portion of the running time where it’s just him chatting it up with his dog and, amazingly, you genuinely feel the bond between master and canine.
Things finally pick up by the third act, but by that point I had grown so apathetic of everything that had happened before that the climax left little to no impact on me.
So what does the movie get right? As mentioned before, Smith does a good job of keeping things afloat when there’s little else going on (which is most of the time). His most notable work in the film is in displaying Neville’s decaying mental stability -- though I wish director Francis Lawrence (“Constantine”) had dipped a little further into that pool and really dug into how an event like this would affect someone mentally.
If nothing else, Lawrence really nails home the feeling of isolation and loneliness, and there are a few genuine moments of palpable tension. Oh, and nothing is creepier than a completely abandoned New York City.
Admittedly, it’s a risky prospect to put on the screen a story where the main character is the only living human left on the planet as it, obviously, leaves no room for any kind of interaction at all. But with a skilled enough director behind the camera and a compelling actor in front of it, something like that can work as “Cast Away” so aptly proved. Here you’ve got a film that shows promise due to the strength of its lead and the highly intriguing premise. But Lawrence’s mostly tepid direction leaves most of the movie in film purgatory.
All in all, I can’t label this as a bad movie, but it’s not a particularly good one, either. There’s certainly worse ways to spend your money at the cinema. If nothing else, you get to see a great trailer for the new Batman movie, “The Dark Knight.”
"I Am Legend" is showing at the Times Square Cinema, Carmike 14 and Hollywood Cinemas in Tyler, Plaza Cinema 3 in Henderson, Cinemark Cinema 4 in Athens, Jackson Cinema 3 in Jacksonville, and Carmike 10 and Hollywood 14 in Longview.
Stewart Smith is a copy editor with the Tyler Paper as well as a burgeoning film critic and aspiring film historian. He may be reached at simplystew@yahoo.com.
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