Will Smith Month - I Am Legend (2007)

          Hey guys, Chuck here. Today, for Will Smith Month, I would like to discuss a movie that was all the rage back in my sophomore year in high school, but has kind of fizzled into semi-obscurity over the years. I am, of course, talking about the 2007 film I Am Legend, directed by Francis Lawrence, and based on the Richard Matheson novel of the same name. Now, what's funny is that the novel has been adapted previously into the film's The Last Man on Earth starring Vincent Price and The Omega Man starring Charlton Heston. So, is this version with Will Smith any different? Let's discuss. 

         Okay, so we open with an interview with a doctor named Alice Krippin, who has managed to re-engineer the measles virus into a cure for cancer. Unfortunately, this inadvertently caused a much greater plague that wiped out 99% of the world's population, and those who were infected but not killed were transformed into vampiric, albino, cannibalistic mutants called Darkseekers, who prey upon the uninfected and are extremely vulnerable to sunlight. Now, in the original novel, they were just vampires, but in this version, they're something else.

          Anyway, three years after the outbreak, US Army virologist LTC Robert Neville (played by Will Smith) is living in isolation in New York City, with his dog Sam as his only companion. We see in flashbacks, however, that his wife, Zoe, and daughter, Marley, were being taken with the uninfected in helicopters to an evacuation site, while the entire island of Manhattan was being quarantined. Tragically, Zoe and Marley both died in an accident amidst the chaos of the evacuation. So, now, Neville's life consists of mundane activities, such as fishing, hunting, working out, going to pick up movies at a video store, the list goes on. He also actively seeks to find a cure for the virus that wiped out the world, and sends out a radio broadcast to any uninfected survivors to meet him at the South Street Seaport at midday. 

        One day, when he sees one cure serum has successfully cured an infected rat, he then goes to capture a Darkseeker to test its effectiveness on humans. He captures a Darkseeker woman, takes her to his basement laboratory, and injects her with the cure.  This has some unforseen side effects as he's now being actively hunted by the Darkseekers, and sadly, Sam is bitten and he's forced to put her down. In a suicidal effort, Neville hunts down the Darkseekers, but is rescued. It's here that we meet Anna and Ethan (played by Alice Braga and Charlie Tahan), two uninfected survivors that are heading North to a community of uninfected survivors in Vermont, but Neville insists that no such community exists. 

        That night, the Darkseekers attack Neville's house, and he, Anna, and Ethan head to the basement, where he sends them into an escape tunnel with a vial of his blood, so that the cure can be manufactured. He then sacrifices himself to blow up the Darkseekers. Anna and Ethan arrive in Vermont, where the survivors welcome them into the community, graciously accept the cure that Neville gave to Anna, this securing his legend as the savior of humanity. 

         Now, before we go on, there is a different ending that was cut and altered to the one I just described. And it is as follows: the Darkseeker Alpha (portrayed by Dash Mihok) makes a symbol of a butterfly, which Neville recognizes as the tattoo on the Darkseeker woman he took earlier. He gives her back to the Alpha, and the Darkseekers take their leave. Neville then looks at the photos of other Darkseekers he attempted to cure over the years, and realizes that HE is the monster in the eyes of the Darkseekers, and he gives up on any efforts to find a cure, and leaves with Anna and Ethan to find the survivors community in Vermont, now a changed man. 

       Now, I do think that this movie is really good. Will Smith was really good in it as Neville. The visual designs for the Darkseekers we're good, albeit a little uninspired and generic. Director Francis Lawrence, in his second directorial effort after Constantine with Keanu Reeves, did a great job here. Heck, it's still mind boggling that the guy who directed Catching Fire, Mockingjay Part One and Mockingjay Part Two for the Hunger Games franchise also made this movie. I also like the idea of setting the film in the deserted ruins of a major metropolitan city like New York. It's really amazing to see such a place completely devoid of human life. 

        Where the film really fell apart was with the theatrical ending. I dunno, I think that the idea that what we think are the monsters are the society of the new world, with what remains of the old one being seen as the real monster is really something, but changing it to keep Will Smith as the hero of the story just felt weak. The alternate ending, however, felt like a genuine punch to the gut, and makes people think about if man is the real monster. 

          Ultimately, I still enjoyed this movie. I'm going to give I Am Legend a rating of 4.5/5. This is Chuck signing off, and we'll be continuing Will Smith Month next Wednesday with the 2019 live-action version of Disney's Aladdin.