I am Legend
In these times, what we want most (well, some of us) is to go outside, walk around all day and enjoy the sun, sit in some café and enjoy coffee and the hustle and bustle around us.
Now, our friend Robert Neville is in such a situation. He lives in Manhattan, he can walk around all day and enjoy the sun… except… he’s been the only resident of Manhattan for the last two-three years… and Manhattan has overgrown into a forest… and the city is full of deer… and tigers… oh yes… (“What do you mean oh yes… what deer and tigers and no people… isn’t that a city full of hot women, cocktails and taxis like in the series ‘Sex and the City’… which, um, I haven’t watched… but, um, that’s what I’ve been told…” – note from subconscious).
Yes, the situation is very complicated. Welcome to the world of the film “I Am Legend.”
Around 2009, genetic engineering was performed on the measles virus, with the intention of curing cancer. Yay for medicine! Except… the virus didn’t really react the way medicine hoped, so there was one “small” side effect… which killed 90% of the world’s population, turned 9.8% into some kind of hybrid zombie-vampire cannibalistic mutants (Darkseekers), and only the remaining 0.2% developed immunity and the virus didn’t harm them… but the Darkseekers ate them… yay for medicine…
And so… Manhattan is one big quarantine zone, where a former virologist and scientist of the American army, Robert Neville, lives. His only friend and comrade is his pet, a German Shepherd named Samantha. As long as there’s sunlight, he spends his days collecting food, ammunition and pieces of electronics (by breaking into apartments around the city), and with that turns his apartment into a little fortress/bunker. Occasionally he takes a movie from the local video club or listens to some radio station. Plays a round of golf. Every day at a specific time he broadcasts a radio message hoping that some other survivor will respond. All of Manhattan is his during the day.
Since he’s immune to the mutated virus, he uses his blood to conduct experiments on mutants (and mutated animals), hoping to find a cure that will reverse the mutation process, i.e., turn the mutants back into rational people. In that he still sees his only purpose.
Meanwhile, a woman appears with a child (both resistant to the virus), who heard his message, and who believes it was God’s intervention that they met. However, she wants to continue the journey with the child, because she heard there’s a fortified camp where there are still survivors who are resistant to the virus and whom the mutants haven’t, well, eaten.
Will Robert find a cure for the virus? Will this trio manage to find that colony? Or are they perhaps the only remaining survivors, and it’s just a matter of time before the mutants get them too? You’ll find out if you watch the film “I Am Legend.” 🙂
Where to start with the review… well, from the star of the film. The brilliant Will Smith had a tough task when he agreed to act in this film. Until then, this actor (although he had already gained considerable popularity in Hollywood) was known for film heroes who were mostly of the romantic or comedic-action type, but for most people he was still Will from “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and an interesting hip-hop musician (though it must be admitted he still holds up well in the music waters, especially with this song, which I just can’t get tired of :D). Of course, there were also a couple of great dramas (“Ali,” “The Pursuit of Happyness” and “I, Robot”), but this film had a different approach. Will Smith (i.e., his character Robert Neville) is alone for almost 90% of the film! Apart from occasional flashbacks to his wife and son (and what happened to them) and a later encounter with an unknown woman who is traveling with her child toward some (allegedly existing) colony/camp for survivors, everything comes down to the main character’s loneliness and survival in the city, during which he’s only safe while there’s sunlight. In other words, the lead actor had to be (literally) the carrier of the entire film, someone at whom all cameras are constantly pointed. And Will Smith, in my opinion, carried the role brilliantly. He found some kind of balance, so that his hero isn’t some pathetic drama-queen wimp who’s falling apart because he lives alone, but he’s also not a hybrid of Terminator and Rambo who deliberately goes out at night and hunts mutants, without a trace of fear and with one bullet takes down seven mutants, and then strikes a match on his shaved beard to light a cigar with the comment “Who is next, bit**es?”. His character is… well, an ordinary human being. Yes, he’s a military man and scientist who must be disciplined and ready for anything, but at the same time he was (and is) a gentle father and husband who was ready to sacrifice everything for the well-being of people (and lost a lot in the process). So we’ll see how Robert Neville constantly struggles not to “crack at the seams,” how he tries to maintain his composure, and yet there will be moments when he’ll emotionally break down, and ask himself whether what he’s doing makes sense and how much longer he can endure alone. Because it’s not the same at all if you have to enter an abandoned building alone to save a friend. And that only friend is also your only connection to living beings – the faithful dog (pardon, female dog) Samantha.
And, in my opinion, Will Smith did all of this excellently. And here you have an interesting article that describes how seriously this versatile actor prepared for this role.
On the other hand, you have the mentioned mutated creatures, Darkseekers. These mutants have unusual behavior. They don’t like light (neither natural nor artificial), so during the day they hide in abandoned buildings. Anything that’s alive, they’ll slaughter and eat. Although Robert Neville seems to have the attitude that every form of reason and intelligence has disappeared in them, some claims speak in favor of the opposite (like the fact that they generally move in hordes, that it seems some of the mutants have the characteristics of a “pack” leader, and even that they deliberately expose themselves to light briefly at times and it seems they have control over it). They look pretty disgusting… or it’s better to say, creepy, especially since they’ve retained human form… ugh, I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s not the same when they start chasing and screaming toward you (since they’re very fast and agile).
The visual aspect of the film “I Am Legend” is also excellent. The eerily empty Manhattan, overgrown with grass and ivy (“When there are no people, nature takes what’s hers… like these past weeks, hehe…” – note from subconscious), where creepy mutants roam at night, really contributes to some kind of post-apocalyptic atmosphere.
Several strong motifs run through this film, closely connected to the plot itself (at least that’s how I experienced them).
The first concerns medicine. Given the period we’re living in (for those coming from the future or who will read this review in five years, it’s currently 2020 and almost the whole world is in quarantine because of a virus suspected to be the result of genetic engineering and because of which no one will order a “Corona” beer in a café anymore), this theme has even greater weight. Where is the boundary of our “playing” with viruses? In the film, it’s shown that the modification of the measles virus came from the best intention, which is to cure cancer. And in the real world there are such scientists who try to find a cure for various diseases through genetic manipulation of various cells, to improve humans or extend their life. And that’s (probably) necessary for human evolution. But you don’t feel comfortable when you know that many pharmaceutical giants, for financial (as well as military and political) interests, create various mutated diseases that are released among people to create panic, and then they rake in billions and billions of dollars on vaccines and various medicines and present themselves as our saviors. And then you see how in the film such a virus appears, for which there’s no cure, because everything got out of control. And then there’s no more tanning salon or Kefalonia or shopping in Milan (“Ooooh, poisonous comment, I like it” – note from subconscious).
The second motif is human loneliness and the need for human contact, i.e., for belonging. Will Smith perfectly shows how a person, after all, can’t be alone for long (even the most introverted and withdrawn and shy and antisocial couldn’t enjoy solitude for that long, no matter how much they think they can fill their time and don’t need other people). Even if life circumstances initially lead you into such a state where you’re isolated from others, you can function for some time (depending on your mental strength, and even your dose of humor), but over time your psyche will give out if you don’t socialize at least a little, even if indirectly. Apparently it’s written in the human genetic code… hey, even the mutants are in groups.
Related to this is how fragile a being man actually is. Robert Neville, no matter how composed he seems (at first glance), is constantly on the edge of “breaking,” vulnerable and unstable, like a house of cards. And often one unfortunate/tragic event can have a much more devastating effect on a person than that person could even imagine, because that event can cut some thin thread by which we hold the past close to us (though here I don’t mean the past in a negative sense like a brake… but, again, maybe in Robert Neville’s case it was a brake, I don’t know, judge for yourself), or it can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, and completely breaks us.
This film also shows you nicely that it’s not the same whether your opponent is a zombie or a mutant. 😀 If it’s a zombie, cold weapons or a shotgun are recommended, and you can even run them over with a car. But if they’re mutants… then shotgun, machine gun, flamethrower, grenades, bazooka, tank… and the car is for running away, not for running them over. 😀
As for the film’s genre, “I Am Legend” could all be classified as… hm… “post-apocalyptic action horror drama,” maybe?
All in all, this is a really good film that shouldn’t be missed. Even if the theme might not seem interesting to you, it’s a shame to miss this excellent role by Will Smith, which is surely one of his better ones in his career (it definitely makes the list of his top 10 best roles, and maybe even top 5). And if you’re a fan of Will Smith or apocalyptic scenarios, there’s a high probability you’ve already watched this film. 🙂
And you, dear reader, how long would you last in Robert Neville’s shoes? 🙂
P.S. – If you happened to watch the film, here’s what the alternative ending of the film looks like, which casts a drastically different light on Robert Neville and the Darkseekers (especially the last 30 seconds or so).
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic
Trailer
Release Date: 2007
Format: Film
Duration: 101 minutes (104 minutes in the version with the alternative ending)
