The last man on earth deserved a lot better.

Rating: 5/10 (5 January 2008)

I Am Legend, the third incarnation of Matheson's eponymous novel, after The Last Man on Earth with the great Vincent Price and The Omega Man with the not so great Charlton Heston, had all the makings of a modern day classic, but, naturally, they managed to blow everything. The first third of the movie is very good, not great, but it sets the tone. The CGI of a barren Manhattan with overgrown foliage and wild animals is eerie and very effective. Then BLAM Will Smith comes riding a Ford Mustang (or whatever that car was). It just felt so out of place IMO, even though it's a nod to the previous Legend installment, The Omega Man. It's the kind of stuff that's screaming Hollywood, and even though it IS a Hollywood production, they had a chance to prove that they can do a lot better than glossy product placement. But no. This is very indicative of how the potential I Am Legend carried was totally mishandled. You're making a post-apocalyptic horror movie. You want to communicate the despondency of a a world without future. And if the Bob Marley songs were a smart and emotional contradiction to the empty streets of New York, a Ford Mustang has no place. Save it for Fast and Furious...
On the other hand, Will Smith WAS Neville and his performance effortlessly carries most of what makes this movie worthwhile. He was chewing scenery for the first half of the movie with ease. A fantastic performance, worthy of an A-list actor if I ever saw one. I wouldn't ever imagine the titular Bad Boy would be capable of portraying insanity and desperation so well, but Smith just exceeded all expectations. The guy just looked like he had lived 3 years alone, his eyes communicated that. The parts where he's talking to the record store dummies stood out for me. You can't tell if he's knowingly talking to them out of genuine loneliness or if he's losing it.
Even the first glimpse of the much maligned CGI monsters wasn't THAT bad. I was expecting a lot worse, and I sighed in relief. Little did I know, that the worse was yet to come. Anyway, the scene where Neville goes looking for his dog in a dark, dingy basement, and stumbles upon a "zombie" hive, with the infected "sleeping" up right with their backs turned was very creepy. But for *beep*'s sake, the director had absolutely no clue about building suspense and tension. Less is more. It's the essence of horror. He needn't go all the way back to Nightmare on Elm Street or Alien to study how the less the baddie appears on screen, the more terrifying he becomes in the mind's eye. A look at recent British horror flick The Descent and how they handled their creatures, would have solved many his problems. Instead of leaving more to the imagination and showing the infected on rare occasions or for a few seconds at a time (like the first time we see them in the basement), which would also mask the cringe-worthy CGI, they show the infected screaming, running around, beating each other, climbing on top of cars, street lights, even friggin walls. I never felt tension or claustrophobia building, when we were expecting the infected to attack. Nothing like Alien and how you're expecting the Giger-ish nightmare to leap from every dark corner and tear the hero apart. Just Will Smith being hunted by pixels. Or dozens of Gollums. I was expecting Frodo to come to the rescue any time.
Then we have the final third of the movie. The second one was already bordering "meh" territory, with Shrek monologues, incomplete backstory and plot holes large enough to drive a Land Rover through. But the third part just takes the cake. I stood there, scratching my head. What the *beep* did I just watch? Some gun fight play, the infected climbing walls, Smith going down to the basement and VOILA, the antidote he was working on is ready. How convenient. Then we get a laughably BAD scene where the Alpha Male is trying to break down a glass wall with his head. I think I lost a couple hundred brain cells right there. Worse than smoking pot. Frankly the whole house invasion should have been a preliminary to the final action. It just felt inadequate.
Anyways, that's my rant. I didn't go in expecting a masterpiece, but I am Legend was so disappointing because it HAD potential. This was no kiddie stuff. No Harry Potter or Golden Compass. Of course that has more to do with the amazing source material, thanks to Matheson's novel, but still. Add to that, Smith's excellent performance, the eerie streets of Manhattan, the horror of defending against hordes of infected that may or may not have traces of humanity left in them. It sounds like a mix between 28 Days Later and Cast Away, but it's less than the sum of its parts. In the hands of a more competent director, without the blockbuster excesses and the natural dumbing down to cater to the average joe of a Hollywood production, this could have been a modern day classic.
5/10 and it may go down on repeat viewings.