I Am Legend Review

Rating: Null/10 (15 January 2008)

This is one hell of a movie! Creepy and gory and shocking, yet intelligent and futuristic and... legendary! It is an edgy film of our time, a story of the future and its assumptive prediction. Will Smith's most breath-taking role.
Can you imagine a world without any other human species (besides you)? Only you and your pet dog in a mouse trap which is as big as, well, Manhattan island? And everything you were used to is gone. The busy streets (that have turned into a ghost town), the people you love (who either died or have turned into monsters), and the lively place that was once New York City (now infested with unexplainable creatures). Very creepy and disturbing.
In the movie, the over-all feel of isolation and alienation was conveyed from the beginning. The movie started with a deer chase on broad day light, the search for other survivors. The whole place was still, no other movement except that of the hero's and the deer's. Not a soul in the streets. And you will wonder how it feels to be the only living animal on earth. But you might be wrong, because more mystery uncovers as the movie continues. Why does he have to head home when his watch alarms, why does he shut metal shields inside his windows at sunset, and what are those horrible noises he hears when darkness comes? And then during a fateful day in the story, when he conscienscously probed a dark, abandoned building, the defaced charactersappeared for the first time in a close encounter with him and his dog. This scene uncovers what lurks inside the seemingly lifeless and empty towers of New York, when they come out, and what they are. It was chilling suspense! Along the plot, more mysteries were uncovered. But there are similarly a few loop holes that kill the admiration of the complexity of the story. First, why are the cars parked primly, when it should be a picture of haywire and everything topsy-turvy if it has been a cat-and-mouse chase or a survival-in-the-jungle way of life in that city for the past 3 years. Also, why did Neville "lost it" when he recognized the same mannequin somewhere else? Why did he irrationally got out of the car and started shooting it and even stepped near it, when he should have thought that it was a booby trap waiting for him. Even the audience knew it the first time they saw it, that the dark side is up to something. And the natural tendency is to think, act weary, put his gun near him, and drive out of that corner immediately! He should have thought to never go back to that DVD store again, or even confining himself in the safety of his house for a while. Think of his enemies' plot, of his own counter plan, and a change in his routine if he has become predictable to his enemies. It was a flaw, an error on trying to end his character. His character didn't have to die, but if it does, it shouldn't have to be that way. If Will's character was supposed to die, or if the infected people were supposed to be eradicated, what could be the best climax where the protagonist and the antagonist will clash? It could be for a better cause, not mere getting out of his mind or going crazy.
All-in-all, this movie is one of its kind, it deserves no less than praises from movie critics.