Thursday, July 3, 2008

I am Legend



Will Smith is a star deserving of a showcase like I am Legend. He's on nearly every frame of film and is forced to dig deep for character in the absence of a supporting cast to play off of. What he does get is a dog. Much like Wilson the volleyball in Castaway, the filmmakers must have realized their solitary man needed someone to talk to. It works. The film exercises a sense of atmospheric dread. It's when the film reveals the source of the dread that the film lost traction. These infected are computer generated baldies that reminded me of a cross between the loose-jawed namesake in The Mummy and the video game zombies of the original Resident Evil. And they weren't real. And I was fully aware of that. It's a flaw when I have to try to make myself believe during all the confrontation scenes. Also, how do people survive a grenade blast two feet away from them to deliver stilted voice over so we can have a sense of closure in this fallen reality? As much as this is a one man show, I wish Smith had more to do. More to stretch him than a dog (a capable actor in his own right) and hundreds of hungry freaks like the stretchy native in Street Fighter II. It's a well made film that knows what it's doing. I wish it just wanted to do more. In the end, there's just not that much to it.

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