Emily Belsey

I’ve just gotten home from a preview screening of Warner Bros. I Am Legend, and I’m not sure how I feel about it all.

The movie is a remake/adaptation of the film/book The Omega Man/I Am Legend. Confusing, I know, but depending on how you count, this latest film is either the third or the fourth incarnation of Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel “I Am Legend.” Maybe some of you have read the novel, or maybe you’ve seen Charlton Heston in The Omega Man, but my only knowledge of the story/plot was what I’d gleaned from previews for this film.

Starring mainly just Will Smith (playing Dr. Robert Neville), it at first kind of reminded me of Tom Hank‘s Cast Away, only set on a different kind of island – New York City. And instead of Wilson, Smith had his trusty dog Sam. Smith also had the luxuries of life in the city – fast cars, automatic weapons, gas, tv, movies… everything except people.

The movie did a great job of bringing me into Neville’s world – the desolate and abandoned city, creepy noises in the dark (and even some during the day), the cold calculations of a man needing to survive… I got it.

And the film preyed on my connection to Neville and his dog Sam. It took those emotions, heated them to a boiling point, then abruptly turned off the heat. Nay, took me off the stove altogether and dumped me in a bucket of ice water.

The movie ended too soon.

It’s only 100 minutes long, and I wanted more. Some movies, like Disturbia, are quite enough at an hour and forty, forty-five minutes. (Indeed, if Disturbia had gone on any longer, I’d have chewed off all my fingernails!) But this one… I feel a little cheated.

It’s a good movie, certainly intense, beautiful cinematography, and Smith more than delivers a stellar performance (as usual, complete with gratuitous and appreciated shots of his chiseled body…), but I’m not sure if I’d recommend the film.

I don’t know… that’s just my first impression. Maybe things will seem different in the morning. Ask me again in a few days if I think you should go see it.

But for now, if you do decide to go see it, here are my conditions:

You must see it at an IMAX theatre – they will be showing the first six minutes of the new Batman film, The Dark Knight, before each showing of I Am Legend.

You must see it during the day. Dangerous things come out at night…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 at 10:24 pm and is filed under Movie Reviews, Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.