So if we must watch the last man on Earth wander aimlessly, it may as well be someone who can hold our attention like the charismatic Will Smith, star of "I Am Legend."
STORY TOOLS
Vincent Price and Charlton Heston took on the role with less success in previously cheesy adaptations of the Richard Matheson sci-fi novel, 1964’s "The Last Man on Earth" and 1971’s "The Omega Man," respectively. While Smith certainly conjures both pathos and absurd laughs as Robert Neville, a military scientist whose immunity to a deadly virus leaves him stranded in Manhattan with only his trusted German shepherd for companionship, it’s the visual effects in director Francis Lawrence’s film that truly dazzle. CGI-enhanced images of Times Square, Washington Square Park and Tribeca, eerily silent and still and covered in weeds, provide a haunting set-up.
Then come the Infected — the ones who didn’t die from the virus but rather were transformed into shrieking, flailing crazies who only come out at night. And here’s where "I Am Legend" turns from a quiet meditation on the nature of humanity into a B-movie schlockfest.
It’s too bad, too, because Lawrence is really onto something for a while. With the help of stark cinematography from Andrew Les- nie, he sucks you into this comatose version of the city that never sleeps. It’s totally disconcerting, but, at the same time, engrossing — watching Neville roam about with his dog, Sam, and a hunting rifle, you have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen next. (Mark Protosevich’s screenplay, touched up by Akiva Goldsman, is very different from the previous incarnations of Matheson’s book.)
Military man that he is, Neville has his routine down cold, with a daily radio broadcast seeking out any other survivors and alarms to warm him when the sun’s about to go down. But he’s also a human being who misses the wife and little girl he lost during the city’s frantic evacuation a few years back.
Neville’s peaceful if tenuous grasp on reality and sanity are disrupted when he realizes the Infected have begun adapting, and are banding together to destroy him.
Conveniently, there’s one guy who’s the biggest and baddest and serves as their leader (Dash Mihok). And conveniently, when other survivors do finally respond to Neville’s daily radio calls, they happen to be a beautiful woman (Alice Braga) and her son, who are about the same age as his wife and daughter.
The three of them hunker down in Neville’s fortified brownstone for one last apocalyptic battle with the baddies.
Lots of explosions and rapid gunfire ensue — sound and fury signifying nothing, which is a shame, since "I Am Legend" looked as if it might have had something to say after all.
movie review
** 1/2
“I Am Legend”
Stars: Will Smith, Alice Braga
Director: Francis Lawrence
Rating: PG-13, violence
On the Web: iamlegend.warnerbros.com
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