Some books inspire movies. The book is so good, so important, that it must be made into a film. Some books are written with the hope that it will be turned into a movie. Some books, no matter how good, should never be a movie. Yet sometimes, some scriptwriter or director thinks they can do it; they just need to change the book enough that whatever makes it unfilmable gets edited out and replaced with new ideas. Most of the time, this does not work. The movie either becomes so different from the book that it is no longer the same story, or the movie is too close to the book that what comes up on screen is unwatchable. One would think that Hollywood would get the point – and after one attempt at a given book, if it does not succeed, they would give up and try something else. But sometimes, some books just seem as if it should be on screen, and they are made, and then remade, and finally made yet again. This is the case for Richard Matheson’s I am Legend, first filmed as The Last Man on Earth with Vincent Price, then made into Charlton Heston’s Omega Man and finally as I am Legend with Will Smith.
Now it must be said that neither The Last Man on Earth and The Omega Manwere failures. But it would also make one think that whatever one could do with the story had been done, and unless one attempted a faithful adaptation to the book which incorporated the capabilities of CGI special effects, there would be no reason to make a movie out of it again.
Someone, somewhere, thought differently. But Will Smith’s I am Legend, despite taking on the name of the book itself, really is a poor adaptation of it. Sure, the movie has things which are enjoyable to it, and it is not a complete failure – as a popcorn flick. But it fails to present to us the story of I am Legend. It fails to give us the themes of the book which make the story so interesting, so compelling, so thought-provoking. Instead, it gives us yet another “zombie flick.”
The movie shows us a plague which turns people into zombie-like “vampires,” and Will Smith appears to be the only man left in plague-ridden New York City. Instead finding out that there is a new human society of those who have been infected by the disease but holding it at bay (the infection making it that they cannot go out at day), and all the complications that brings in the novel (he has been killing them during the day), we are shown that some people just cannot be infected by the disease (and they can all go out in the day). Smith’s Robert Neville faced none of the moral quandaries of the original story. He is not the legend of the novel, the monster who can go out in the day and kill unsuspecting people. He is just a human struggling to survive and wanting to find a cure for the plague. He captures the “vampires” to run tests on them, but, until the end, he doesn’t show any malice towards them. He just goes on his life the best he can, avoiding those contaminated by the plague unless seeking to capture one for an experiment. And that is the problem with the movie. I did not want to see just another zombie film; I wanted to see I am Legend with its plot twist. Alas it is not here.
Now, admittedly, the film has some very interesting scenes – such as the first time we see Neville driving through a rundown, deserted New York City. His psychological development (or devolution), is well done; he is trying to hold on to his sanity but is clearly losing it. But this is not enough to make the movie. It is just average – and I rate it 2/4 stars. It is not bad, but it is nothing special.
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