I Am Legend

No, I'm not talking about me, although I'm indeed a blogging legend (cof, cof). Joking. Now, seriously, for a gamer's blog it's kind of strange that I end up posting more about movies and music than about games. Now that I think of it, I haven't played much lately, been too busy looking for a job and working on a couple of short stories (I don't write just for blogs).

But I digress. This time around I'm here to talk about I Am Legend, Francis Lawrence's latest movie starring Will Smith as the main character and the 3rd film based on Richard Matheson's book of the same name (the other 2 movies it inspired have different titles, though). This movie intrigued me ever since I heard the title. "I am legend", now that's an interesting name for a movie.

Meanwhile my will to see it turned down a little due to a guy's comments on another forum I visit regularly. The guy's a dickwad, though, and his opinion about the movie just confirms it. "Poor plot", "wasted potential", bah! Fuck him! Now I've watched the movie and I have my own opinion, and guess what, I liked it!

Although it's based on the aforementioned book, it just retains certain key aspects from the original plot, so even if you've already read the novel prepare to be surprised just like everybody else. For the most part the movie follows Neville's (the main character) struggle to survive in a world where almost everybody was turned into mutant freaks due to a virus. Being the last man alive in New York (and possibly the world), he desperately tries to find a cure, while managing to survive in a world where he has to hunt and scavenge for food and supplies. During the day this is somewhat easy, since the "infected" have a vampiric-like aversion to the sun, but when night comes...



Besides the interesting setting there were a couple of things that I really liked. For once there's a lot of references to real-life persons of products, like the movie Shrek or the artists Damian and Bob Marley. Yeah, we already knew the film was set on a contemporary NY (2012, to be precise), but it's little things like this that really gives the idea that the movie's events really happen in our world has we know it, and not in some kind of alternate reality.

Second, (SPOILER) the scene where his dog gets infected and he has to kill her really touched me. I don't know if it's just because I was always pretty attached to my pets and suffered a lot when they all died. Anyway, I almost cried when I watched that scene, and keep in mind I'm that kind of guy that laughs when most people die on movies, usually making fun of the other characters sad faces.(SPOILER end)

On the other way there were a couple of things I didn't like. The Infected, for example, look bad. worse, they don't look credible. The first time we see them, for just a second, they really look scary, but for the rest of the movie they just look like hyperactive monkeys jumping in unrealistic ways and they're faces just don't look credible. Even a child can tell they're CGI instead of guys wearing masks. To make a point, Gollum looks more realistic than these guys.

Also, the ending was not bad (I actually like "sad" endings), but I think I would prefer the ending they originally planned. You can read it here.

Other than that, this is a great movie. If you like the apocalyptic setting, this is a must see, and even if you don't, I dare say that everyone should give this one a try.