Review

Review Date: 16-December-07
Spoiler Rating: Low
Juju Judgment: Juicy

I Am Legend (2007)

At first glance "I Am Legend" seems an unlikely candidate for a yuletide release. It is, after all, a horror movie about the sole human in New York who exists by hunting, foraging, and defending himself from zombified former humans who want to devour his viscera. Yet "I Am Legend" turns out to be well suited for holiday viewers, at least ones who can digest gore, heartbreak, and inspiration outside religion. For this is a thinking person's horror film, or rather a thinking/feeling person's horror film. It is a Christmas monster movie about love and sacrifice and finding the light in a time of darkness.

Heeding the story's horror gene, director Francis Lawrence eschews instant gratification to let the atmosphere build. At first we accompany Robert Neville (Will Smith), a former military doctor, and his beloved shepherd dog as they cruise the empty streets in pursuit of deer and anything useful left by the vanished populace. A running flashback fills in the details about how he had led the fight against a virus created to cure cancer which had become epidemic and transformed people into ghastly fiends. The audience is made to feel the weight of silence and futility that presses down on him as he goes about his daily routine, which also includes a trip to the video store, where he chats up mannequins he put there for company, and a noontime vigil at the dock where he has invited other survivors to meet him, should they receive his broadcast SOS.

The creatures who were transformed by the virus cannot abide sunlight, so Neville sticks to a tight roving schedule to avoid meeting them. But they so outnumber him (and he needs them for ongoing medical research) that it is impossible to duck them entirely. This allows for the tense middle section of the movie in which the monsters are first seen and blood is first drawn. Afterwards, Neville's loneliness gives way to such despair that he invites a confrontation. This is when the story's sci-fi gene, tinged with a strain of midwinter, comes to the fore.

Few actors besides Will Smith could carry this film, attaining compassion and credulity as a bereaved family man, renowned scientist, doughty survivor, doting pet owner, and poor bastard losing his grip on sanity. He brings all his popular personae into play, from action star to dramatic actor, and lastly, supremely, to hero who chooses to do the noble thing even though he does not want to face it or understand why he has to make the choice. "I Am Legend" finds its beacon in the human capacity for goodness, in Neville's ability to pursue hope, lose it, and find it again in an unexpected way. When it comes right down to it, this picture is as warm as blood and as bright as the trees of the holiday season.

Copyright © 2007 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.