I Am Legend - digg this
Well I finally saw I Am Legend (2007) this weekend. I never read the book that this is based on. I did see The Last Man on Earth and it remains a favorite Price movie before he descended into camp (which I also love). I looked at how this ended vs. how Wikipedia says that the original ended and I have to say that I wish they had gone with the original. They almost did, sort of, but they chickened out.
So did I like it? Well I'm an A1 Certified Will Smith fan so yeah, yeah I did. Robert Neville (Smith) is frickin' insane. WIthout anyone to talk to other than Sam, his dog, he has taken to setting up mannequins and naming/conversing with them. Will plays this insanity very low key, unusual for him, and it works. I looked at the alternative ending and if they had played a bit more with it and tweaked it then it would have been a much darker ending and would have made more sense titularly.
There's more action than this strictly speaking calls for. There are explosions, Will carries several big gats, and there's at least one shot of him sans shirt. So some of the fears that were shared with me came to pass. The creatures/infected are too, too CGI where made up actors would have been fine. I did like the judicious use of flashbacks and the way they made NYC look deserted worked as well here as London in 28 Days did. The city is a character here.
So should you rent it? If you like me love Big Willy then sure. It was worth the $1 that Redbox charges (thanks Redbox!!) for sure. Of course in the writing of this I discovered that IMDB has an entry for I Am Legend II: Vampiric Boogalloo which makes me gently weep.
