Will Smith fans going wild for sci-fi
I watched ‘I Am Legend‘ yesterday evening.
I admit it, I have a soft spot for Will Smith. There’s hardly a film he has made that I haven’t enjoyed – even ‘Hitch‘ was OK – and some I know I will watch again (including ‘Independence Day‘ and ‘Enemy of the State‘.) So I was willing to give ‘I Am Legend’ a go, even though I didn’t really fancy yet another post-apocalypse zombie movie.
But I was very pleasantly surprised. It was a good film and, better still, it was real science fiction. It had a pretty improbable but not impossible premise – that the end of the world would come through some well-intentioned piece of genetic engineering – a virus that would kill off 95% of the population, leave 1% unaffected, and turn the rest into (almost) mindless, piebald, nocturnal canibals. The story was about one man – Will Smith – who is one of the immune survivors – perhaps the only one. Everyone else, he believes, has been eaten by the zombies. He lives alone in New York, hunting deer in the streets, and working on a cure for the virus as he slides slowly into madness.
Given the initial premise, everything about the film is plausible and well-realised. Mr. Smith gives an excellent performance, as ever.
The film is based on the book ‘I Am Legend’ by Richard Matheson, which I must read one day. I’m not expecting ‘Kalki‘ (my favourite post-apocalyptic novel) but I suspect it is the intelligence of Matheson’s writing that comes through and makes this a good film despite the usual Hollywood dumbing-down process.
Oh, definitely read the book. The movie… has a few things in common with the book, and yeah I enjoyed Smith’s acting the first time I watched it, but it seriously pales in comparison.
Graham, writing this on an iPod! While attending an it conference – we all have one to play with for a few days.
Anyway, back to I Am Legend. I enjoyed the film but preferred the ending in the written story – have a read. The concept of the main character becoming a ——– tto the diseased survivors (and hence the ‘legend’) is such a wonderful twist in the tale.
I have left a word out so as not to be a spoiler.
iPods are not great keyboards
Terry
OK Jo, Terry, I’ll read it, I’ll read it! I said I would. Sheesh!
i personly loved the movie,
i never go for the weird zombie crap but my boyfriend does.
he said it was good and i love will smith,(:
so i just watched it, lol, i cryed like a frekin baby when sam died and when will died.
it had some great parts in it but when thoes things poped up it scared me lol but it was amazingg.
any one who has never seen it needs to or your nothing haha
Hi Courtney. Sounds like we both need to read the book too now (see Jo and Terry’s comments above). Of course, it won’t have Will Smith in it…