I am Legend
Year of release : 2007
Run time : 1h40m
Genre : Horror / Action / Thriller
Cast : Will Smith
The post apocalyptic movie is directed by Francis Lawrence (he directed many beautiful music videos in the late ‘90’s - early 2000’s), and is loosely based on the 1954 novel of the same name by Richard Matheson.
The movie opens with the news segment ,in which doctor Alice Krippin is giving an interview saying she found the cure for cancer.
3 years later, New York looks like after a war, empty and falling apart. The only person left alive seems to be virologist Robert Neville with his dog. They hunt together for deer, and when his watch alarm rings, he packs things up and goes home. When the alarm rings a second time, the sun sets, and he shuts down the metal blinds of his home, “hiding” in the bath tub with the dog, as the zombies leave the dark places they hide on daylight, their screaming filling the night air.
At home, he keeps on playing the news he recorded about what was happening in the world at the time the virus spread, and when he goes out looking for food, or renting DVDs, he talks to mannequins he placed around shops as people, when passing by them so he would feel like he’s not alone.
He broadcasts a signal, telling people where he is, to come find him, if they are alive.
In the basement he has a lab, as he is still trying to find a cure for the infected people and animals.
We see the past, when Robert tried to get his family out of New York, as the virus mutated, becoming air borne, around Christmas time.
One day, as they see a deer, the dog chases it into a dark building, and Robert goes after it, although afraid, trying to get the dog out. Going through the dark rooms and halls, he sees the zombies gathered in packs, standing together like meerkats, in the dark.
He finds the dog, but they disturb the zombie who’s eating the deer, and wake the others up too. Luckily for him, as a zombie catches him, he gets outside, into the light, and the zombies are photosensitive.
Robert is trying to catch one for research, so he takes a vial of his blood and sets a trap. He catches a female around 20 years old. But he’s not successful in curing her.
On his birthday, he sees a mannequin in a place it’s not supposed to be, and going to check it out he gets caught in the trap the zombies set for him and hits his head (it seems they are not as stupid as he thought them to be, as he thought they lost all human traits and are like animals). He wakes up when his clock alarm goes off as the sun is setting, and the zombies are coming out of hiding.
I liked the movie, although things depicted don’t really make sense in the context, like, the grass grew through the asphalt in only 5 years?!
Another thing was with the virus which spread too fast. His dog is bitten and within a few hours she turned.
I did like the dog, the colors, the atmosphere of the movie like a late summer, maybe?
The acting was good. Emma Thompson makes a cameo as the creator of the virus.
The soundtrack was Ok.
The visual effects were so and so, as you can tell the zombies and the deer are CGI.
The movie received positive reviews with an equal score of 68% from the critics and the audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 65 metascore from the critics and a 7.3 user ratings from Metacritic.
Cinema Score audiences graded it a B.
The movie grossed 585 million dollars at the box office, against a budget of 150 million dollars.It was the 7th highest grossing movie of the year 2007, although released in December!
The movie has been in the works since 1994 when actors like Michael Douglas, Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson or Arnold Schwarzenegger were considered to play the lead !
You can watch the full movie for free on the Ok.Ru platform.
Rating : Worth a watch !