I Am Legend - a Review

Will Smith is an excellent choice for the leading role. His sometimes somber and often poignantly humorous performance is a proven fit for science fiction. However, his performance cannot make up for a story that is told on the wrong stage.

Story telling has long been an art. The story of a solitary man and his trusty canine, Samantha, on a quest to find a cure for a diseased world would seem to be intriguing and, if told masterfully, would engage the audience. I AM LEGEND told the same story as Omega Man [http://imdb.com/title/tt0067525/] although it was told in a way that left me feeling as if the story teller was a bit fuzzy on his details, forgot a few dramatic parts and rushed to the end. I feel cheated. Science fiction fans will love the effects and the effort to hold to some of the details. Perhaps this is a movie best left in our rental queues somewhere at the bottom.

Smith's fabulous performance aside, I felt the stage was wrong. The flashbacks and opening sequences could have easily been spun into a two-hour TV pilot. I am not fond of writing for directly for TV, but the story lends itself to be in agreement with the small screen. Samantha's death could have been the first season cliffhanger. The 'hunter' dark seeker and his trained animals could have emerged mid-season 1. Season 2 could have carefully and frighteningly explored the emergence of intelligence in the dark seekers' 'hive' mind. The zombie woman taken by Smith's character for experimenting with a possible cure could have been the hunter's love-interest. An edge-of-our-seat season 3 could have included the attack on the last human outpost. Episode after episode could reveal how the lone survivor lived and thrived on the remains of a slowly dilapidating New York, finding an interesting cast of characters both in the humans immune to the genetically altered virus and, later, in the dark seekers. But, this story went none of these directions. Instead, characters were left unexplored, possibilities unconsidered, nightmares unimagined.

The effects were spectacular. Tension-building scenes were choreographed masterfully. Makeup was borrowed from The Mummy [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120616/] and should have been returned unused. Campy teenage thriller moments were littered throughout in predictable patterns. The fake animals looked way too much like the wolves in The Day After Tomorrow [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319262/].