ZEE'S REVIEWS

19th May 2008
I Am Legend (2007)

I Am Legend is the heartbreakingly beautiful portrait of the last man on earth as he goes about his daily life in a deserted New York City. He hunts wild deer in Central Park, borrows videos from the forever empty rental store, and takes his faithful dog for walks through a landscape where the concrete has been broken up by grass and flocks of birds wheel between skyscrapers.

And then the killer mutants show up.

I Am Legend is the latest in a line of movies based on Richard Matheson's classic SF novel. This time, it is Will Smith who plays Robert Neville, a scientist who survives the viral plague that has turned the rest of humanity into mindless ravening monsters. Smith is believable and sympathetic as Neville, a man who has lost everyone he ever loved, but who is not only clinging to existence but also doggedly researching a cure. By day, he is free to roam the city, but at night, the mutants emerge in terrifying force, and the only safety is in hiding. When the status quo is broken, the struggle between Neville and the mutants intensifies to crisis point.

The flashbacks interspersed throughout the movie are effective and add to its poignancy. But the best scenes are those showing Neville moving through his daily life: rewatching taped news broadcasts at breakfast, holding friendly conversations with mannequins in shops, constructing the illusion of life to fend off the isolation and loneliness. I Am Legend succeeds because it examines not only the monsters without but the humanity within.