Richard Matheson's Legend lives on ...

Rating: 8/10 (23 December 2007)

By now, and ironically enough, novelist Richard Matheson has become a bit of a living legend himself. Countless of his screenplays resulted in terrific horror movies ("The Pit and the Pendulum", "Night of the Eagle", "Duel") and which other author can claim he lived to see no less than three cinematic adaptations of his most famous story? And it's about time someone updated the marvelous concept, as the other versions date back to the early 60's ("The Last Man on Earth", starring the formidable Vincent Price) and the early 70's (with Charlton Heston starring in "The Omega Man"). From what I've heard and read there were earlier plans to accomplish a newer version, even acclaimed director Ridley Scott was interested during the 1990's apparently, but we still had to wait until now; for this tense and surprisingly unsettling film directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Will Smith.
Well, personally, I'd say this post-millennium version of Matheson's timeless Sci-Fi story was well worth waiting for! The author wrote his novel "I Am Legend" in the early fifties  1954 if I'm not mistaken  but the plot's impact is still as powerful as ever, and with the nowadays available & computerized techniques filmmakers can really re-create the apocalyptic ambiance like Matheson truly intended it. The earliest sequences showing the completely forsaken and bewildered avenues of New York City are, alongside Will Smith's perplexing performance, deeply impressive and memorable. This is probably the only movie ever that features deers running over Times Square! Smith portrays one of the most legendary fictional characters ever, Robert Neville, and the film starts three years after the feared Krippen Virus exterminated the earth's entire population. During the daytime, Neville wanders through the abandoned streets of NY and desperately attempts not to go insane due to his loneliness. He has mature conversations with his loyal dog Sam (a beautiful and intelligent German Shepard) as well as with mannequin dolls he randomly placed in a DVD store. He also continues to search for an antidote, because he still believes he can reverse the virus and save humanity. At night he has to hide for the so-called Dark Seekers. They are former human beings who survived the virus, but it nevertheless transformed them into monstrous creatures that can't stand daylight and prowl the streets at night for food. Will Smith's one man show as the supposed last man on earth is staggering, petrifying, poetic and saddening all at the same time. Through brief flashbacks we also gradually learn what exactly happened to his own family members during the times of the virus' outbreak, and these sequences only make his sense of perseverance more admirable. The Dark Seekers are reasonably menacing, but still a little too CGI for my taste. I still prefer the primitive zombies of "Last Man on Earth" and even the rather silly looking albinos of "The Omega Man" had more apocalyptic charm. Notwithstanding, some of the sequences involving Neville and his dog versus the Dark Seekers are genuinely eerie and atmospheric. Unlike many of my fellow reviewers around here apparently, I also really liked how the screenplay left a lot of questions unanswered and how it allows the viewers to contemplate about the missing parts themselves. For example, the movie never shows any footage of the three devastating years between the outbreak of the virus and the setting of the film. However, I do agree with the vast majority of reviewers regarding the disappointing climax. Although I do believe the modern cinematic times are partially to blame for the hopeful denouement, because back in the 60's and early 70's unhappy endings were far more common. At least the ending of "I Am Legend" is partially unhappy.
You wouldn't have said so after his previous achievement in direction "Constantine", but "I Am Legend" certainly proves that Francis Lawrence disposes of a talented filmmaker's visions and a great eye for detail. The film is nightmarish yet beautiful to observe, with weeds and flowers growing back through the asphalted streets, billboards and advertisement signs that haven't been changed in more than three years, car wrecks and buildings that slowly decaying in the streets and the last man on earth smashing against golf balls from the wings of a military jet. "I Am Legend" is at times even almost hauntingly poetic and I'm pretty sure the now 81-year-old Richard Matheson will appreciate the latest interpretation of his brilliant work. We can only hope the next large-scaled Matheson project (a remake of that other classic Sci-Fi story entitled "The Incredible Shrinking Man") will be as good as this.