From Omega To Will

Rating: 7/10 (13 March 2008)

I was delighted when I heard they were taking another stab at Richard Matheson's classic tale "I Am Legend." The last time it was filmed was in 1971 with Charlton Heston in "The Omega Man" (Omega being the last letter in the Greek alphabet), but that flick has become quite dated now with its hippie kids and blaxploitation heroine, so a remake seemed necessary.
About ten years back, it was going to be remade with the Ridley Scott/Arnold Schwarzenegger dream team and a massive budget. What a pity we will never see that version, it will always remain one of the great unmade sci-fi movies.
Instead of Arnie, we have Will Smith in the lead who can be a good actor when he pushes himself. Sure he's buffed up and carries a gun everywhere (so far, so Arnie), but he tones down his usual hip-hop mannerisms and actually displays some vulnerability for once and does well in the role.
Director Frances Lawrence did a good job on "Constantine" and, for the most part, he acquits himself well here too, particularly in the daytime scenes. The scene where Will Smith has to go after his dog in a dark, underground space where "The Dark Seekers" might be hiding is as tense a scene as any movie had in 2007. Brilliantly done.
Virtually every review of "I Am Legend" complained about the cheesy special effects. The dark seekers look a lot like Gollum from "Lord of the Rings" which is probably because Andrew Lesnie was the cameraman on both movies. The difference is that "Lord of the Rings" had a massive effects budget (which is why Gollum looked so photo-realistic), while "I Am Legend" seems to have had very little. The creatures look like graphics from a PlayStation game. Although they are much scarier than the ghouls in "The Omega Man." Charlton Heston could reason and converse with them, the dark seekers in Will Smith's movie are fierce, primal beings whose only instinct is to drink the blood of humans. They don't even seem to have the power of speech, they just roar (A great early scene has Will Smith hiding in a bath with his dog as he listens to a chorus of blood-curdling howls coming from the masses of ravenous dark seekers in the streets outside).
I did enjoy "I Am Legend" and I will be getting it on DVD, but I will always pine for the Schwarzenegger/Scott version that almost made it. Oh well, you can't have everything!