Let me first say that remakes are the order of business in Hollywood. It’s been this way for many years now. “I Am Legend” is no different. I know you’re thinking it LOOKS unique… it seems different. It is different because it is GOOD, really good. Really, REALLY flipping excellent but it is still a remake. Another difference is that most people who remember the original are probably too old to remember it. I’m 32 and I know it because I’m a movie whore.
Richard Matheson is a hell of a novelist specializing in what we would categorize as psychological horror. “I Am Legend” is a conglomeration of not one, but two of Matheson’s works that were then adapted to film. Both films were equally as awesome and stunning and “I Am Legend” is certainly in the same criteria.
The first film, released in 1964, stars whom I perceive as the master of thrillers and horror whose films have garnered such remakes as “The Haunted”, “House on Haunted Hill”, “Pit and the Pendulum” and “Wax Works” – Vincent Price and it was called “The Last Man on Earth”. Essentially Vincent plays a doctor who worked in South America where a plague erupted and he gained immunity to it and then worked diligently to create a cure.
The second film, released just before I was born, was a hit in 1971. Though closely resembling the first this film was NOT a remake by Matheson. And is, in fact, based off of the book “I Am Legend” by Matheson and it starred Charlton Heston as Robert Neville who is a research scientist for the military and after a chemical warfare wiped out the people of Earth (or so he thought) he comes to find people who survived as night walkers who wanted to end technology as it was what caused the end of the world.
“I Am Legend” derives the bulk of its story from “Omega Man”, but there are plot points from “Last Man on Earth” so it needs to get its props. Will Smith does a superb job reprising Hesston’s role as Robert Neville, a research scientist that is speedily looking for a cure to a vaccine that was created that killed cancer and then mutated. Having an unknown immunity to the mutating effects he works hard using strains of his own blood to try to find a cure. In his way are animalistic zombie-like creatures bent on nothing but survival – think “28 Days Later” zombies and not your grandma’s “Night of the Living Dead” zombies because these suckers can MOVE! They’re only hindrance? Sunlight.
This movie grips you from shot one and never let’s you go. It’s compelling, thrilling and visually perfect. The only flaws I see are in the CGI generated zombies. I would have loved to see a more human approach to these creatures for a more ferocious look and feel but they wound up making me think about the CGI work from “The Mummy”. Will Smith’s child-like charm and whimsical smile that made him a star in the first is there as is his more than stellar acting ability.
Though being a remake and taking parts from both wonderful adapted works “I Am Legend” can stand alone and take charge by giving us something that hasn’t been seen in 30-40+ years and probably hadn’t thought of in nearly 25 years or better. It opens up the generation to not just 2 awesome films like “The Omega Man” and “The Last Man on Earth” but to a great novelist like Matheson so for that props must be given.
Rating this is hard. I want to give it a 10. I really do – but the CGI Zombies hurt it a little for me. I’m a purist dontcha know. For that reason I give it 9.5 out of 10. I highly recommend it.
—————————
MORE INFORMATION
—————————
http://www.iamlegend.com
