arun’s blog

SPOILER ALERT:
How to waste 90 minutes? Watch this movie.
Movie: I am Legend
Starring: Will Smith and a German Shepherd.
Genre: Drama / Horror / Sci-Fi / Thriller
My Rating: 3.0/10

I have always liked Will Smith movies. But, it sure is totally adventitious for this movie to have a 7.3/10 in IMDB. Unbelievable.

People who loved this movie, I am sorry to disappoint you. The way I see it, this movie is a total waste of time. The plot outline from IMDB is,

It is the year 2012. In the ruins of New York city. Robert Neville who is a military scientist who is the lone survivor of a biochemical disease which was supposed to cure cancer 3 years previous. With only blood thirsty zombies as his neighbors and his trusty dog, Samantha, Robert is trying to discover a cure for this disease and to find out any other people who might have also survived.

The movie starts with a lady scientist being interviewed who claims to have found cure for cancer which then turns into a disaster spreading a virus which devolves almost every being into fearsome overzealous zombielikes. They are for some reason reluctant or unendurable to sunlight. Therefore implying they are a threat only after sunset. Will Smith is one of the very few who is immune to the virus, though the only survivor in New York. One fine morning, he goes deer hunting in the city of New York, yes, on the streets. While targeting a deer which is almost cornered, a Lioness pounces on it while the whole of the Lion family (including cubs) are on their way to feast it. He carries a gun, but backs off magnanimously saving his gallantry for Zombies. His German Shepherd dog is with him all this time. An alarm in his watch goes off, a signal to return home owing to sunset. On the way to his house after the futile hunt, he decants some liquid in front of his house, which I can only guess is not water, probably to keep the zombies away from detecting some smell?

He was a Lieutenant colonel military scientist assigned to this particular base – ground zero. Obviously, he goes to his research laboratory in his basement, where he checks and records his current results on his animal experiments with different strains. He finds that, one particular strain has begun to reverse and wither the zombie effects thereby destroying the virus, somehow. He is ready to test on humans. Every night, he closes his special blinders which completely seals the house. This you can see through out the movie, every night when he is about to sleep. Also, we see a glimpse of his past as his nightmares, before the pandemic occurred. He has lost his child and wife over it. And till now, Will Smith converses only to his dog. Fortunately, the dog doesn’t speak back. Further emphasis on his loneliness over the past 3-4 years happens when he goes to a deserted DVD shop where he initiates conversation to the cut-outs and lifeless human models laid for advertising in the shop. Every day afternoon, he sits in a particular place transmitting a message on AM radio seeking out to help people and that they are not alone. 50% of the movie is over, where the monologue is mostly with his schipperke.

I couldn’t bear it anymore. But just then comes the much awaited pivotal scene, he sets trap for a zombie, it is successful. However, another zombie, the alpha male of its kind, seeing it roars rambunctiously expressing his discontent. He could not come out of the dark building because of sunlight. On his next day-trip, “Fred” one of the lifeless shop model character has been replaced somehow from his usual position which is in front of the DVD shop to somewhere else. Will Smith asks him, “How did you end up here?”. He goes near Fred to fall in to a similar trap as constructed by him to capture the zombie earlier. Now, while trying out his strain on the captured zombie earlier, he claims that they are now totally inhuman and that they lack the human instincts because of lesser brain functioning ridiculing them as pseudo-intelligent species. I don’t understand how the zombie reconstructed the trap. Will Smith falls for it. Who the hell is intelligent??? One thing is for sure… I aint!! to continue watching this movie.

He manages to escape from the zombie’s vicious attack, however his dog is attacked, wounded and infected. The dog starts to exhibit the same wild zombielike characteristics. He is forced to kill by strangling it. I don’t know why he couldn’t advocate his researched strain which yielded better results on animals. With extreme anguish and frustration, he decides to kill as many zombies as possible by baiting himself in the dark. Just when he is about to be killed, a flash of light shines upon and he is rescued. His damn radio has been finally put to some use. He is rescued by Anna, another survivor with immunity. However, he is followed on his way home by the zombies. Again they seem intelligent and powerful to me!! Rest is climax where the movie ensues with some typical fight sequences.

I don’t even want to discuss the climax for the philosophical crap the movie portrayed. I am glad if I could help a few to not fall for this pretence enthrallment. I am happy I could write my views without lambasting about this utter piece of shit. Why canines are impervious to airborne virus attack alone? What the hell was he doing in his laboratory? There was no scientific content that engages a meaningful or convincing sequence over his discoveries or experiments. Why sunlight is harmful to the zombies? I only remember a 1001 days of research. Now, even if I accept his quest for finding a cure amidst his otherwise pathetic and lonely life for over 3 years to be admirable, speaking with a dog and a bunch of shop banners almost the entire movie makes it worse.

I can only assume that the intension was to bring out the essence of self-destruction and the aftermath of isolation and paranoia. The only best thing that combats the googolplex of loop holes in the plot was Will Smith’s acting. It was an inexplicable performance, be it delivering his agony over losing his dog with whom he had been speaking over for 3 years (50% of the movie too) or when he is incensed at Anna, when she tells him that she coming here was for a reason. He upbraids her over her meaningless consolations that God has spoken to her and reneges on her offer to join to some other safe place. However, in toto, a depraved and a callow movie, with sci-fi being the weasel word.