I Am Legend review by The Grim Ringler
I Am LegendIt’s never a good sign for a film when the trailer that leads into the feature is far more hyped and anticipated than the film, but in the case of I AM LEGEND, it served as a bit of a challenge – can you live up to this? Well, the answer was a hearty, er, well…
The world is poised on an historic medical discovery – the cure for Cancer, but just as the initial trials are wrapping up, something goes very wrong and the cure mutates into a deadly virus that ends humanity as the world has known it. Having lost the battle to fight the disease, and his family, one man stands as a reminder of all that was lost, himself a ghost among the ruins of Manhattan, but he is not alone. A military doctor tasked with halting the virus in New York before it was too late, he failed at his task and, after the fall of the city, and then seemingly the world, he swore that he wouldn’t stop working on a cure, in the vain hope that he might make amends for a sin he didn’t commit. While prowling the city for supplies, and searching for other survivors, he is also fighting for his own survival as, while he is the only human alive in the city; he is not the only one there. Hiding within the city’s darkness are the results of the virus, a mutated race that was born of Man but which has seemingly devolved to a feral state with a need for blood to survive. While these mutations make great test subjects for the ongoing tests but they are a deadly foe to this last man. Survival takes its toll on the man though as loneliness starts to tear at his sanity and the constant pressure of being the last one alive causes him to take needless risks in his behavior. When yet another loss snaps his tether to reality, the man turns his frustration to revenge and risks everything in the hopes at striking out at the things he sees as his natural enemy. It is only when he is proven not to be the last living soul that he is shown that there may yet be a way to fight the mutations and the virus that caused them, but to do it will mean a sacrifice greater than he had ever dreamed.
UGH! That’s my review wrap-up. God this was a good movie. It was big, it was loud, it was wonderfully acted by WILL SMITH, who was perfect as this character, and it was scary. I loved this movie. It was a nine. Bit by bit though, the shingles started to come off the roof. Yes, they nailed the danger, and they nailed the loneliness, and they nailed the feeling of desperation, but in so doing they sacrificed the true terror the mutations had in the novel this film is based on. In dumbing these monsters down, the film loses one of the main things the novel was trying to say, but, alas, this was not the greatest of sins. What bothers me most is to hear that SMITH wanted to do this film for ten years, TEN FREAKIN’ YEARS and yet he allowed them to paste the ending onto this film that they did. I have not seen such a pandering, Hollywood ending on a film in ages. From out of nowhere the film takes a sharp left turn and the hell of it is, it works, for a bit. There are things that are added here that are not great, but are not bad but then the ending, which throws the very meaning of the title of the damn book out the window and makes it meaningless, and that I can’t forgive. It is a damned shame that such a solid film and story was sold out. And what really sucks is that film still isn’t awful. I am sure a lot will like the film, and that’s fine, but it’s a drag that this could have been a brilliant adaptation of a landmark book and instead it’s another Hollywood job of mailing it in ‘cause the audience can’t handle the real ending. Pathetic.
Like I said, this isn’t an awful film. There is much to like, and if you can forgive the ending, then you’ll be fine. Me, I can’t. It’s just too much to ask. What a shame. From ‘9’ to ‘6’ in twenty minutes. Sigh.
6 out of 10 Jackasses
