Has anybody not seen this yet? Reasonably entertaining calculatedly blockbuster-y scifi/action, the latest of many remakes and reinterpretations of one of the most prominently and repeatedly remade sci-fi stories, and the only one that retains the name, if departing completely from many of the key themes and details, of Richard Matheson’s original novel (even if it will never replace any of the other adaptations under different names, particularly my favorite Vincent Price vehicle “The Last Man On Earth” and its spiritual descendant, if only extremely indirect remake, “Night Of The Living Dead”, in my heart.) Will Smith’s likability keeps it watchable, even occasionally rewatchable, despite some over-the-top moments, tough suspensions of disbelief, and fridge logic. The many scenes of an unpopulated and overgrown Manhattan are a treat—and only improved by Wikipedia’s recounting of Will Smith saying the Manhattan street closures necessary to do them resulted in”the most middle fingers I’ve ever gotten in my career”—and the slow development of the action is well done. The rubbery “monsters”, slightly less so, but they do serve their purpose. Still, best to wait a very long time after seeing “28 Days Later” before you watch it. (Note: according to Wikipedia, the DVD included an alternate ending that kept superficially closer to Matheson’s novel, and also would have provided an explanation for some of what in the final release was fridge logic; it didn’t do well with test audiences, who were perhaps unaccustomed to the subtlety of the writing of someone who went on to write The Twilight Zone’s” Nightmare At 20,000 Feet “and Star Trek’s” The Enemy Within”, and was completely rewritten at the last minute. WP also says Ridley Scott was at one point slated to direct—now that’s a movie I’d really like to have seen, I look forward to the day I can tell an AI, “Show me ‘I Am Legend’, but directed by Ridley Scott”—as were Guillermo Del Toro and Michael Bay.) Also, the monsters’ guttural screams and grunts were recorded by Faith No More’s Mike Patton, adding another entry to the list of things I think Mike Patton overdid. Incidentally there’s a pretty decent review focusing on the differences between the several adaptations of “I Am Legend”, specifically contrasting this “conservative” one with the themes of the more morally ambiguous original novel, in an academic “Journal of Religion & Film” of all things: https://web.archive.org/web/20161024132316/http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol12no1/reviews/ILegen.htm.
