Movie Rewind- I Am Legend
January 11th 2008 19:58
Plot synopsis
Robert Neville (Will Smith) is a brilliant scientist, but even he could not contain the terrible virus that was unstoppable, incurable... and manmade. Somehow immune, Neville is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York City... and maybe the world. But he is not alone. He is surrounded by "the Infected" -- victims of the plague who have mutated into carnivorous beings who can only exist in the dark and who will devour or infect anyone or anything in their path. For three years, Neville has spent his days scavenging for food and supplies and faithfully sending out radio messages, desperate to find any other survivors who might be out there. All the while, the Infected lurk in the shadows, watching Neville?s every move, waiting for him to make a fatal mistake. Perhaps mankind?s last, best hope, Neville is driven by only one remaining mission: to find a way to reverse the effects of the virus using his own immune blood. But his blood is also what The Infected hunt, and Neville knows he is outnumbered and quickly running out of time.
As with most Hollywood movies these days ( except maybe Cloverfield), the advertising starts early and the hype machine goes into overdrive. This movie is based on the brilliant novel of the same name by Richard Matheson, which was originally published in 1954. I recall reading it in the late 80s and it had always stood out as a stand alone viewpoint on the vampire genre.
The first encounter with the 'Darkstalkers' gave promise but as the movie progressed, I found there were too many questions unanswered. Things like: If New York was full of creatures that were so bloodthirsty, then how come there were herds of Caribou running aound, followed by a group of Lions? When there were no other animals around?
Then he mentions something about the Darkstalkers change in behaviour but this piece of info isn't followed up when they lay a trap for him later on.
A few holes in the plot with a missed opportunity to delve deeper into the creatures pysche and the typical 3rd part of a movie, where hero gets saved by another person, but how this was done is never made clear?
Not bad acting from Will Smith, although I feel Tom Hanks played a man alone better in Castaway. Overall I felt this could have been a lot more and at just 100mins, I heard quite a few people in the movie theatre comment about how short the film was.
A good attempt but they should have stayed more faithful to the book as that would have opened up more interest in the main character as well as giving greater depth to the vampires, as this side of things wasn't really explored in the movie.
kiwiauthor rating 6.5/10
| 56 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
