You’ve heard of a movie having legs?
Well here’s a movie that has teeth … literally. Lots of ’em. And they’re very sharp. These oversized fangs are perfect for the virally-mutated, formerly human zombies who have them to use to masticate on the flesh of the few — very few — normal humans left who don’t.
But the elaborately mounted, often unsettling sci-fi thriller “I Am Legend” is most creepy before we actually get to behold the “dark seekers,” when just the mere threat of them looms over a nearly deserted New York City. It truly looks like it’s the end of the world as we know it. And, unless you’re into roaming hoards of night-dwelling cannibals, it does not feel fine.
The year: 2012. Will Smith, as military virologist Robert Neville, seems to be the last man left on earth. He’s somehow immune to the apocalyptic disease, which was originally unleashed to cure cancer. Now, he is alone to somehow find a way to cure the plague, maintain his sanity, and physically survive on the island of Manhattan with no proper company except his trusty pooch Sam — played by a German shepherd named Abbey who, fortunately, happens to be the most emotionally present canine thespian since Lassie.
Today’s is the fourth film inspired by Richard Matheson’s 1954 novella “I Am Legend.” Probably the best-known previous version, 1971’s “The Omega Man,” had Charlton Heston chewing the scenery in his customary fashion for a violent B-movie set in a post-holocaust Los Angeles.
For this update, director Francis Lawrence, screenwriters Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman, and a skilled special-effects crew have fashioned a more resonate and interestingly detailed take on the theme. The action eventually goes over the top into monster-movie scare tactics and then to an incongruently abrupt happy ending. But before that, the subtext presses buttons of real contemporary fears over WMDs, the avian flu and other paranoid bugaboos. For instance, beds and even whole buildings in the movie have been draped in plastic sheeting in a futile attempt to contain a catastrophic threat. Duct tape, anyone?
But the main reason “I Am Legend” remains effective, despite some cheesy horror-flick conceits, is Will Smith. There are very few major movie stars as believable and likable who could sustain a picture almost single-handedly to the extent that he does here — without becoming annoying. Like the feat Tom Hanks pulled off in “Castaway,” Smith spends most of the film in dialogue with himself. Hanks only had Wilson the Volleyball; Smith only has Sam the dog. But somehow he keeps us engaged in his oddly adaptive daily routine and his struggle to find a reason to go on.
It may not be legendary, but his performance in “Legend” is worth seeing.
‘I Am Legend’
****
Starring: Will Smith, Abbey the German shepherd
Director: Francis Lawrence
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence
Running time: 100 minutes
