I Am Legend

After an antibody meant to cure cancer rapidly mutates, the super-virus immediately wipes out 90% of the world’s population, turning 9% into creatures of the night who hunt the remaining 1% left immune. Among the latter is Robert Neville, who spends his days gathering supplies and trying to find a cure.

If this sounds familiar, I Am Legend is the third movie based on the 1954 Richard Matheson story of the same name. The first was the little-known 1964 spaghetti horror The Last Man on Earth starring ghoul-master Vincent Price, and the second was the 1971 cult classic The Omega Man starring Charlton Heston.

But the sense of “déjà vu” that permeates the 2007 version doesn’t end there. Every scene, event, and twist in this unoriginal film has previously appeared on screen.

Writer Mark Protosevich (who wrote the abominable Poseidon remake, as well as the Jennifer Lopez 2000 clunker The Cell) seems clearly infected by a plagiarism plague. Even the tinkering by secondary writer Akiva Goldsman (The Da Vinci Code, A Beautiful Mind) fails to improve the pace. Films of this nature usually have a message, but both scribes seem too lazy to have even bothered coming up with one. And fans of the 1971 treatment will miss the character of Matthias, the leader of the infected people whose new society is threatened by Neville because he represents everything that came before.

As Neville, the aging Will Smith gives an understated performance and carries much of the film alone. He adeptly conveys the loneliness and fear of suffering a fate worse than death -- a dog and carefully placed mannequins are his only companions. A Colonel/scientist like Dustin Hoffman in Outbreak, Neville conducts experiments on the bald and grey-skinned victims who resemble the Borg from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Bulking up to fight the future like Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2, he is beginning to show signs of insanity like Tom Hanks in Cast Away. Exploring what’s left of Manhattan (The Stand) in a souped-up car (Mad Max), Neville encounters zoo animals roaming the streets (Twelve Monkeys), and tries to avoid the dark recesses of abandoned buildings (Pitch Black) where the carnivorous mutants (28 Days Later) congregate in “hives” (The Lost Boys). These “Dark Seekers” have mouths that stretch unnaturally wide (The Mummy), superhuman strength (any zombie movie), and burn when exposed to sunlight (any vampire movie). With difficulty adjusting to his new world (Planet of the Apes), Neville’s paranoia increases (The Aviator), and the self-appointed saviour (The Postman) retreats to his lab (Panic Room).

Yet, Neville’s struggle to survive is depicted as so harrowing and exhausting that it seems impossible when a petite woman (Brazilian actress Alice Braga) and a boy (Charlie Tahan) suddenly show up three years after the apocalypse. They have been traveling across the country (Damnation Alley) in search of a rumoured sanctuary (Logan’s Run).

Sophomore feature director Francis Lawrence -- who has no hits to his credit and is best known for crafting music videos -- creates an occasionally tense film, but his lone attempt at poignancy is a meagre shot of a pair of unused cribs. Told in flashback, the story also depicts army sentries guarding the Brooklyn Bridge (Godzilla) as panicked refugees attempt to flee (War of the Worlds).

But the many unanswered questions leave the film incomplete. If the mutants are described as having lost all vestige of humanity, would they be so modest as to still wear pants? And why isn’t there a single skeleton to be seen in the streets? Nevertheless, the art direction and cinematography of the desolate New York wasteland are fascinating, despite a few embarrassingly fake backdrops.

In the end, I Am Legend is ultimately unmemorable…a pointless and weak rehash of everything that came before. Rating: 3 out of 10.