by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
B Rated PG-13 114 min.
After viewing this film, I asked a pertinent rhetorical question – could it be construed as just another zombie movie? Yes, but it’s a new slant on
the pandemic plague movie genre. Directed by Francis Lawrence, “the infected” mutant zombies in this picture are still a threat to protagonist Robert Neville (Will Smith), although, for some inexplicable reason, he is immune to the vicious man-made virus that wiped out most of humanity.
The virus kills everyone around Neville as he watches helplessly. He ends up a lonely man, his trusty dog his only companion. His great fear is that he is the last human on earth not infected by the virus. However, before long he realizes he is not alone. There are mutants–the infected–milling about, mentally and physically altered by the plague. These hyper-predators hunt in packs with vicious cunning, like rabid wolves.
Since Neville’s a genetic scientist, he is working on a cure. But Neville has other more pressing problems, namely how to survive in this new hostile world. He broadcasts a message everyday at noon on all radio frequencies, trying to find other survivors. Meanwhile, he shoots game and grows corn to survive. During this time, he tries to figure out how to use his own blood to develop a vaccine.
Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman’s screenplay cleverly uses action variations of the zombie concept as Neville struggles daily for his livelihood. One could say this is more of an action movie, using the fear of zombies as a suspenseful hook. Nonetheless, there are the obligatory explosions and running-for-his-life scenes. Neville is always running, hunting and using his heightened survival instincts to get through each day. Meanwhile, the mutants are shadowing him as prey. And, of course, as every zombie movie fan knows, one can’t reason with mutants–just blow their heads off.
As Robert Neville, Will Smith carries the film with his physical acting and strong lens presence. Smith turned in an impressive solo performance of a man thrust into an alien world. He has to use his intelligence and will to survive to overcome his own fears and insecurities against all odds. The script greatly expands the zombie movie concept with bleak urban vistas and apocalyptic scenes of desolation in a world without humans. Everywhere one looks, the city is dying from neglect and the buzz of humanity’s footprints. It’s frighteningly peaceful during the day, but terrifying at night as the mutants and other creatures come out to hunt. Neville has to deal with this new world the best he can, while searching for a cure to the virus.
The movie’s post-apocalyptic world plays on everyone’s fears of Armageddon. An attack with a man-made virus that has no cure released on the worldwide population keeps anti-terrorist specialists awake at night. This fear is the basis for I Am Legend. The Great Plague pandemic killed a million people in Europe in 1665. The flu pandemic killed millions in 1918. But a genetically engineered virus released into the atmosphere would indeed be catastrophic. These super-bugs are all but impossible to stop. It would be far worse than global thermonuclear war.
Unlike most post-apocalyptic movies, too numerous to mention, Lawrence’s fast-paced action combined with Will Smith’s savvy performance creates an exciting big budget film. Cue zombies and let the games begin as Neville is the ultimate “Survivorman” in New York City with his dog and M-16. We can only pray that this film isnot prophetic.
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