Thursday, Dec. 13, 07

Night of the Living Dud

By Dan Hudak

Will Smith and his German shepherd, Sam, inherit the Earth in I Am Legend.

If ever a man were given the responsibility of restarting the human race, wouldn’t we want it to be Will Smith? His character in I Am Legend, Dr. Robert Neville, is smart, physically fit, loves animals and has a charming sense of humor. Surely, if he found a female survivor, humanity would not just carry on, it would thrive.

The year is 2012, and Neville is the last man on Earth after a supposed cure for cancer mutates into a deadly virus that wipes out the world’s population. But that doesn’t mean he’s alone. Every night, he and his beautiful German Shepherd, Sam, settle into their Washington Square apartment and barricade the windows as the undead (i.e., vampires and zombies) prowl nighttime New York City. Because Neville is immune to the disease, he spends a lot of time in his basement lab trying to find a cure. The film never reveals why he is immune, which is bogus and lazy on the part of screenwriters Akiva Goldsman and Mark Protosevich.

Although the story is easy to describe, director Francis Lawrence’s (Constantine) film is unique in that very little actually happens throughout the 100-minute running time. Neville has little to do besides hunt for food, eat, search for the cure and protect himself and Sam from creatures of the night. An opening sequence with a Ford Mustang racing through the barren streets of Manhattan, and narrow escapes from the undead are entertaining, but quickly grow tiresome.  

Smith is the only thing that makes it all tolerable. His screen presence and charm make Neville as likable and vulnerable as he needs to be for us to watch just him for almost the entire first hour of the movie. This is akin to following Tom Hanks alone on the island in Cast Away, but at least in that circumstance there was curiosity in watching Hanks’ character learn how to survive on his own. Here, we get a sense of how Neville lives and it quickly becomes redundant rather than explorative.

The film is based on the 1954 novel of the same name by Richard Matheson, which was previously adapted in 1971 with Charlton Heston as Robert Neville in The Omega Man. That film obviously lacks the production values seen here, most of which are top-notch. Surprisingly, much of I Am Legend was shot on location in New York City and, according to imdb.com, the studio spent $5 million to shoot for six nights near the Brooklyn Bridge. That doesn’t include what it cost to shoot in Times Square, on Fifth Avenue and in portions of Central Park, or the costs of making each location look desolate.

Add to this some freaky visual effects and you have a movie that looks great and holds your interest, even though you’re well aware there’s not much going on. Credit much of that to Smith, who, as this weekend will no doubt prove, remains the last man in Hollywood who can guarantee a huge box office take. But that doesn’t always mean his movies are good.  

Comments? E-mail dhudak22@yahoo.com.