I am Legend

Date: 29 December 2007

(Caution: Contains Spoilers)

A remake of a remake of a film of a novel (Richard Matheson’s novel “I am Legend”; then “The Last Man on Earth”, then “The Omega Man” and now “I am Legend”), the film opens with Will Smith’s Robert Neville hunting antelope through the deserted streets of New York City and “renting” movies from a store that he has populated with mannequins. We learn that Neville lives in a post-pandemic world, that he is immune to the disease and that he is a scientist who stayed behind when the city was evacuated and closed off. The horror begins when his pet dog chases an antelope into an abandoned building, and into which Neville reluctantly enters: rounding a corner, we glimpse a mass of pale, naked and dirty “people” huddled together. We learn that the pandemic killed most of the world’s population and turned the remainder into aggressive zombie-like creatures who seem to lack intelligence and instinct.

Most of the film establishes the back-story to Neville’s life in the deserted and dangerous city and slowly cranks up the tension as we begin to suspect that he may not be the only intelligent being in the city. The last act is enjoyable if you can suspend some CGI-challenged disbelief (why can’t they just use extras, like in the old days?).

A great movie in the zombie genre and similar in many ways to 28 Days Later.

5 stars.