Disaster

Rating: 1/10 (9 January 2008)

I really think that IMDb should introduce possibility of negative grades, because this one certainly deserves -10. This is only the second movie in my life that made me think "What a waste of 1.5 hours of my life"... Up till now, I thought that nothing can be worse than Zemeckis' "Contact", but I was wrong. For me, this is singularly the worst attempt of filming an excellent novel ever. Absolutely nothing in this movie is done right. I don't understand the need of American film-makers to tarnish excellent books with their distortions and deviations, which is especially true for this film.
In my opinion, Will Smith was wrong choice for the part of Robert Neville. There is not a moment in the film in which I see Robert, not Will. I don't say he was abysmal, but he wasn't stellar either. Simply, he fails to deliver convincing character.
Story... What to say about this? I am convinced that screenwriters didn't even read the book. Instead of it, they just read summary digested in 3 sentences, because they wrote something that is so distant from the original story that I read one thing and watched something completely other. I won't go into details, it sufficient to say that there is no scene in the film that corresponds to the original storyline. For example: in film, doctor Robert Neville constantly repeats "I can fix this!" As if the plague that killed 90% of humanity is the broken bicycle that can be fixed. Also, he is the world's only hope of finding the cure, but this is cliché that can be seen in every Hollywood film of this type: Americans will save the day and bring hope to the humanity... Yeah, right. Real Robert Neville is in fact just an ordinary guy without Ph.D. trying to survive in the world that ceased to be normal". He is alone, and the loneliness is something that was almost tangible in the book. Robert goes out in the day and kills infected that are in slumber. He becomes source of terror for the infected because he kills them in their sleep, their bogeyman". Real vampires/zombies are intelligent beings that are building new kind of society, not mindless bloodthirsty creatures depicted in the movie. The woman by the name of Ruth (without the child) that came to him was not human immune to the plague looking for the enclave of health individuals, but a spy sent by vampires to infiltrate his house and eventually betray him. Also, the dog. The dog was much more important for Neville than we are allowed to see in the film. In the book, Neville was alone for long before the dog appeared near him. He had to lure this stray dog with the food for days just to have any kind of companion. He was heartbroken after dog died, because he developed relationship with that dog and now he was alone AGAIN.... It would take to much time to list everything, so I will stop here.
But what bothered me the most is completely missed idea. It's not about heroic struggle of one man to find the cure, but about vanishing of one society and system of values that is being replaced by another, in which Robert and the rest of normal" people can't exist. Screenwriters don't understand why the name of the book is I am legend". No, not because Neville became legend because he invented the cure for the plague and made restoration of the humanity possible. I am legend" stands for something that Protosevich and Goldsman were not able to comprehend. Before his execution, Robert Neville understood that he represents anomaly in the world of vampires, who consider him to be the monster. As they are preparing the stage for his execution, he knows that he will become something from the past, something that will exist only in myths and stories for spooking disobedient children  he will exist as a legend. That's why the last sentence in the book uttered by Neville is I am legend". Let me quote this part: Then sudden silence, as though a heavy blanket had fallen over their heads. They all stood looking up at him with their white faces. He stared back. And suddenly he thought, I'm the abnormal one now. Normalcy was a majority concept, the standard of many and not the standard of just one man. Abruptly that realization joined with what he saw on their facesawe, fear, shrinking horrorand he knew that they were afraid of him. To them he was some terrible scourge they had never seen, a scourge even worse than the disease they had come to live with. He was an invisible specter who had left for evidence of his existence the bloodless bodies of their loved ones. And he understood what they felt and did not hate them. His right hand tightened on the tiny envelope of pills. So long as the end did not come with violence, so long as it did not have to be a butchery before their eyes
Robert Neville looked out over the new people of the earth. He knew he did not belong to them; he knew that, like the vampires, he was anathema and black terror to be destroyed. And, abruptly, the concept came, amusing to him even in his pain.
A coughing chuckle filled his throat. He turned and leaned against the wall while he swallowed the pills. Full circle, he thought while the final lethargy crept into his limbs. Full circle. A new terror born in death, a new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever.
I am legend."
All in all, I recommend that the people that loved the book avoid this piece of garbage at all costs.