Not the Stuff That Legends Are Made Of

Rating: 6/10 (6 April 2008)

I wholeheartedly agree with many other reviewers that as pure entertainment goes, I Am Legend is fine - just fine to be more accurate. It is compelling enough to keep you on the edge of your seat, the CGI and visuals are impressive, Will Smith is Will Smith, and the story generates just enough of a comparison with the great apocalyptic novel I Am Legend by Richard Matheson to be engaging. It is very short for a movie that could have been much more in depth. Character depth is missing. Story depth is missing. Thematic depth is missing. Yes, we get the action scenes. Yes, we get Smith being charming and glib. Yes, we get high tech gadgetry and big box office sensibilities. Yawn. This film could COULD have been so much more than what it is. As it is it is marginal entertainment, but had it really taken Matheson's novel and based its screenplay in a more committed manner to it - the film could have been entertaining and profound. Why so short? Why the dog in the beginning of the film? Why the high-tech crap - to cover up the glaring weaknesses in plot and character depth no doubt. Don't get me wrong - I enjoyed the film enough so that I would definitely see it again. But having read the book and knowing what could have been done is the most supreme disappointment. The book could be easily transformed to film page by page. Of course you would forfeit action chase sequences and big budget gloss. But the book had a theme of one man against the undying void of loneliness that comes with being the very last man on Earth. That never happens here as we have a dog with Robert Neville immediately and soon...well, you'll see. The story was done twice before with Vincent Price in The Last Man on Earth and Charlton Heston in The Omega Man. This one is about as good as those two - though as far as story integrity goes - I'll take The Last Man on Earth as a better realization of what Matheson achieved in prose.