I Am Impressed.

Rating: 8/10 (7 January 2008)

I'm a huge fan of The Omega Man, the 70s film adaptation of Richard Matheson's book I Am Legend, and so when I heard that a new version was on the horizon, starring crowd-pleaser Will Smith and directed by Francis Lawrence (who made the so-so Constantine), I feared the worst.
However, I am glad to report that I Am Legend is a hugely entertaining post-apocalyptic chiller, despite featuring that scourge of many contemporary fantasy/horror films: poorly conceived CGI monsters. Lawrence delivers a tight, effective, and very enjoyable movie, and Smith does a commendable job in a role that, for the most part, requires him to interact with just a dog, some mannequins, and a bunch of digital effects.
The film opens in a deserted and derelict New York, as Robert Neville (Smith), survivor of a worldwide plague, travels the lonely streets of The Big Apple hunting for food and searching for other humans. Then, as the sun begins to sink, he nervously heads for home (taking special care to cover his trail) where he barricades himself in until dawn, because, when night falls on Manhattan, the infected crawl from their hiding places to feedon blood!
Much of the film follows Neville as he goes about his daily routine: hunting, foraging for food, searching for other survivors, talking to shop dummies, driving golf balls off the end of an aircraft carrier, and desperately searching for a cure to the disease that has ravaged the planet. The mundanity and repetitiveness of his life is brilliantly conveyed and the fragility of his sanity is easy to understand.
Of course, occasionally, our protagonist's familiar schedule is interrupted by something a little different, such as when (in the film's tensest moment) his trusty canine friend Sam chases a deer into a very dark building, leaving Neville no choice but to follow. And sometimes his experiments require him to capture a live infected specimen. Which is interesting.
Eventually, however, Neville's lonely life takes a completely unexpected turn, when, late one afternoon, he falls into a trap set by the infected, and the sun slowly begins to set...
Often exciting, sometimes scary, and even occasionally quite sad, I Am Legend is a blockbuster film that actually deliversquite a rarity these days.
Shame about those CGI monsters, though.