i am legend movie review essay

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, when you're alone and life is making you lonely, you can go downtown.

Now streaming on:

The opening scenes of "I Am Legend" have special effects so good that they just about compensate for some later special effects that are dicey. We see Manhattan three years after a deadly virus has killed every healthy human on the island, except one. The streets are overgrown with weeds, cars are abandoned, the infrastructure is beginning to collapse. Down one street, a sports car races, driven by Robert Neville ( Will Smith ), who is trying to get a good shot at one of the deer roaming the city. He has worse luck than a lioness who competes with him.

Neville has only his dog to keep him company. He lives barricaded inside a house in Greenwich Village, its doors and windows sealed every night by heavy steel shutters. That's because after dark the streets are ruled by bands of predatory zombies -- hairless creatures who were once human but have changed into savage, speechless killers with fangs for teeth. In his basement, Neville has a laboratory where he is desperately seeking a vaccine against the virus, which mutated from a cure for cancer.

The story is adapted from a 1954 sci-fi novel by Richard Matheson , which has been filmed twice before, as "The Last Man on Earth" (1964) starring Vincent Price , and " The Omega Man " (1971) starring Charlton Heston . In the original novel, which Stephen King says influenced him more than any other, Neville cultivated garlic and used mirrors, crosses and sharpened stakes against his enemies, who were like traditional vampires, not super-strong zombies. I am not sure it is an advance to make him a scientist, arm him and change the nature of the creatures; Matheson developed a kind of low-key realism that was doubly effective.

In "I Am Legend," the situation raises questions of logic. If Neville firmly believes he is the last healthy man alive, who is the vaccine for? Only himself, I guess. Fair enough, although he faces a future of despair, no matter how long his cans of Spam and Dinty Moore beef stew hold out; dogs don't live forever. And how, I always wonder, do human beings in all their infinite shapes and sizes mutate into identical pale zombies with infinite speed and strength?

Never mind. Given its setup, "I Am Legend" is well-constructed to involve us with Dr. Neville and his campaign to survive. There is, however, an event which breaks his spirit and he cracks up -- driving out at night to try to mow down as many zombies with his car as he can before they kill him. He is saved (I'm not sure how) by a young woman named Anna ( Alice Braga ), who is traveling with a boy named Ethan ( Charlie Tahan ).

He takes them home, and she explains they are trying to get to a colony of survivors in Vermont. Neville doubts that such a colony exists. I doubt that she and the boy would venture through Manhattan to get there. Yes, she has doubtless heard his nonstop taped voice on all AM frequencies, asking to be contacted by any other survivors. But we have seen every bridge into Manhattan blown up as part of a quarantine of the island, so how did they get there? Boat? Why go to the risk?

Never mind, again, because Anna and the boy import dramatic interest into the story when it needs it. And director Francis Lawrence generates suspense effectively, even though it largely comes down to the monster movie staple of creatures leaping out of the dark, gnashing their fangs and hammering at things. The special effects generating the zombies are not nearly as effective as the other effects in the film; they all look like creatures created for the sole purpose of providing the film with menace and have no logic other than serving that purpose.

"I Am Legend" does contain memorable scenes, as when the island is being evacuated, and when Neville says goodbye to his wife and daughter ( Salli Richardson and Willow Smith ), and when he confides in his dog (who is not computer-generated, most of the time, anyway). And if it is true that mankind has 100 years to live before we destroy our planet, it provides an enlightening vision of how Manhattan will look when it lives on without us. The movie works well while it's running, although it raises questions that later only mutate in our minds.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

Now playing

Sleeping Dogs

Brian tallerico.

Red Right Hand

Marya e. gates.

Peyton Robinson

Megamind vs the Doom Syndicate

Cristina Escobar

Riddle of Fire

Robert daniels, film credits.

I Am Legend (2007)

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence

101 minutes

Charlie Tahan as Ethan

Willow Smith as Marley

Salli Richardson as Zoe

Alice Braga as Anna

Will Smith as Robert Neville

• Mark Protosevich
• Akiva Goldsman

Based on the novel by

• Richard Matheson

Directed by

• Francis Lawrence

Latest blog posts

Doug Liman Never Does Things the Easy Way

Trapped in the System: Julio Torres on Problemista

Rise of the Ronin Wastes Interesting Setting with Clunky Gameplay

I Need Your Magic: M. Emmett Walsh (1935-2024)

I Am Legend

By francis lawrence, i am legend analysis.

These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own.

Written by people who wish to remain anonymous

I Am Legend is a lot of things in one. First of all, it's the story of loneliness, very similar to Cast Away in this regard, dealing with a protagonist whose constant and unrelenting isolation is held in tension with his will to live and his struggle for hope. Also, it's a horror film, largely designed to unnerve the audience.

Let's deal with the horror aspect, because it's the most academically important feature of the story, since this film is a retelling of the novel by the same name which help to start the zombie story (although technically, they were originally thought of more like vampires).

Zombies represent an anti-resurrection from the dead, so before anything else is said, the first important feature is that it goes directly against the Christian narrative of a divine resurrection. This is not to say the novel is anti-religious, because religious themes are introduced throughout the film (taking care of neighbors and strangers, holding on to hope in spite of grim, deathly circumstances, becoming the Christ-character for the salvation of others—all these themes are well-represented in the story). So the horror element is not the absence of meaning, it's just the introduction of terrifying possibilities.

By focusing the audiences attention on fear and darkness (like the scene where the man chases his dog into a dark, zombie-infested parking garage), the film asks the viewer to reconsider their assumptions about life. By causing actual fear, the mind is forced to acknowledge that the sense of safety that undergirds daily life might actually be unfounded or wrong, and maybe the truth is closer to terror than we formerly imagined. In other words, scaring the viewer provides a cathartic release of all our daily fears that we ignore in the pursuit of happiness, to quote another of Will Smith's films.

Eventually, though, the plot resolves with Christian overtones. In either ending, the implication is that the survival instincts did not go to waste, but were there for the benefit of others. The sacrifical death in both cases is unignorably hopeful.

Update this section!

You can help us out by revising, improving and updating this section.

After you claim a section you’ll have 24 hours to send in a draft. An editor will review the submission and either publish your submission or provide feedback.

I Am Legend Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for I Am Legend is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What irony is implied in the cut between the flashback and the present setting?

Are you referring to a scene in a particular chapter?

What does Robert find on the third day of his drinking binge?

On the third day of his drinking binge, Robert steps outside and finds a scrawny dog on his front lawn.

As Robert drags the female vampire's body into his station wagon, what does he discover that strikes terror in his heart? Chapter 4 I am legend

On his way out, Robert nearly trips over the comatose body of the man he had moved earlier and is startled to find that he now looks and smells like someone who has been dead for years. He realizes with a shock that the sunlight has killed the...

Study Guide for I Am Legend

I Am Legend study guide contains a biography of director Francis Lawrence, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About I Am Legend
• I Am Legend Summary
• Character List
• Director's Influence

Essays for I Am Legend

I Am Legend essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of I Am Legend, directed by Francis Lawrence.

• The Challenge of Survival in The Road and I Am Legend
• The Struggle of Robert Neville to Preserve His Humanity in Isolation

Wikipedia Entries for I Am Legend

• Introduction

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Movie Review | 'I Am Legend'

Man About Town, and Very Alone

By A.O. Scott

• Dec. 14, 2007

“Not if you were the last man on earth!” Plenty of guys have heard that line at some point in their lives, but it’s unlikely that Will Smith is one. His irresistible charm has been proved, above all, by his ability to attract audiences to bad movies like “Hitch” and “Wild Wild West,” as well as to better ones like “Ali” and “The Pursuit of Happyness.” In spite of its third-act collapse into obviousness and sentimentality, “I Am Legend” — in which Mr. Smith plays somebody with every reason to believe that he really is the last man on earth — is among the better ones.

And this star, whose amiability makes him easy to underestimate as an actor, deserves his share of the credit. There are not many performers who can make themselves interesting in isolation, without human supporting players. Tom Hanks did it in “Cast Away,” with only a volleyball as his buddy, foil and straight man. Mr. Smith has a few more companions, including an expressive German shepherd, some department store mannequins and a high-powered rifle. (There are also some flesh-eating, virus-crazed zombies, about which more in a moment.) But it is the charismatic force of his personality that makes his character’s radical solitude scary and fascinating, as well as strangely appealing.

In this Mr. Smith is helped, and to some degree upstaged, by the island of Manhattan, which the movie’s director, Francis Lawrence, has turned into a post-apocalyptic wilderness. Three years after an epidemic has caused the evacuation and quarantine of New York City, Robert Neville (Mr. Smith) is its sole diurnal human resident, and he spends his days roaming its desolate neighborhoods, at once wary and carefree. The streetscapes he wanders through will be familiar to any visitor or resident, but the way Mr. Lawrence and his team of digital-effects artists have distressed and depopulated New York is downright uncanny. Weeds poke up through the streets, which are piled with abandoned cars, and a slow, visible process of decay has set in.

A nightmare, of course, but not without its enchantments. In some ways Neville, dwelling in a highly developed urban space that is also a wilderness, experiences the best of both worlds. From his home base in the elegant Washington Square town house he was lucky enough to own (on a government employee’s salary) before the big die-off, he makes daylight forays that are like an adventure-tourist fantasy. He does a little deer hunting on Park Avenue and some indoor fishing at the Temple of Dendur, picks fresh corn in Central Park and smacks golf balls across the Hudson from the deck of the aircraft carrier Intrepid.

Mr. Lawrence, who previously directed the hectic, obnoxious “Constantine” and many music videos, uses elaborate, computer-assisted means to create simple, striking effects. While “I Am Legend,” the latest in a series of film versions of a novel by Richard Matheson, fits comfortably within the conventions of the sci-fi horror genre — here come those zombies! — it mixes dread and suspense with contemplative, almost pastoral moods. And without taking itself too seriously, the movie, written by Akiva Goldsman and Mark Protosevich, does ponder some pretty deep questions about the collapse and persistence of human civilization.

Neville, a scientist and a soldier, constitutes a civilization of one. His daily routines are at once practical — he wants to find a cure for the virus that wiped everyone else out, and he needs to be home before sundown — and spiritual. Under the streets of the city and in its empty buildings are the infected, transformed by the virus into pale, hairless, light-allergic cannibals. “Social de-evolution appears to be complete,” Neville observes as he makes notes in his basement lab. And his habits are a way not only of protecting himself from the zombies, but also of maintaining the distinction between them and him.

The zombies, like the rabid dogs that are their companions, nonetheless display rudimentary pack behavior and are even able to set traps and make plans. Once they begin swarming, “I Am Legend” inevitably loses some of its haunting originality, since they look a lot like the monsters in “28 Days Later” (and its sequel, “28 Weeks Later”). They also represent a less compelling application of computer-generated imagery than all those empty avenues and silent buildings.

And in its last section “I Am Legend” reverts to generic type, with chases and explosions and a redemptive softening of its bleak premise. The presence of the lovely Brazilian actress Alice Braga does seem promising; if she and Mr. Smith were to reboot the species together, Humanity 2.0 would be quite a bit sexier than the present version, as well as friendlier. But really the movie is best when its hero is on his own, and Mr. Smith, walking in the footsteps of Vincent Price and Charlton Heston, who played earlier versions of the Robert Neville character, outdoes both of them. There is something graceful and effortless about this performance, which not only shows what it might feel like to be the last man on earth, but also demonstrates what it is to be a movie star.

“I Am Legend” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It has virus-crazed, flesh-eating zombies.

The Vector of the I Am Legend Film Essay (Movie Review)

The vector in the movie, spread of the vector, government interventions, lessons from the fictional scenario.

“I am a Legend” is an emotional and powerful movie directed by Francis Lawrence. The film illustrates persistent years of a killer disease that causes massive loss of lives and transforms the rest of humanity into monsters. Therefore, the sole survivor of the plague in New York struggles valiantly to find a cure. Simply put, the movie focuses on Lieutenant Colonel Robert Neville, a doctor striving to fight a deadly virus that had wiped out all the human race except him.

The movie outlines one of the deadly viruses known as the Krippin Virus (KV). Initially, medical practitioners made the Krippin Virus by genetically altering measles to serve as a miracle cancer treatment. At first, the virus worked effectively with no adverse effects, a concept that changed over time and led to the mutation and rabies-like symptoms in its hosts (Lawrence, 2007, 00:44:43). However, KV is the primary vector in the unique horror film.

Krippin Virus had airborne and contact strains, which determined the transmission mode from one person to another. The airborne strain spread from one person to the other via the air, whereas the transmission of the contact strain occurred through the contact of blood and saliva. According to Lawrence (2007, 01:15:15), many human beings succumbed to the Krippin Virus infections after 48 hours, during which the host suffered from physical symptoms, vicious bloodlust, and prima behavior. Therefore, the disease was mainly an airborne and contact plague.

After the Krippin Virus airborne strain outbreak, the government placed New York City under military quarantine. Neville, a highly acknowledged scientist with a high-ranking military role, assumed the primary responsibility of saving the human race (Lawrence, 2007, 00:44:43). Hence, through the military, the government adopted the role of people protection by allowing Robert Neville to find out ways to fight the deadly virus.

Overall, the movie enlightens the viewers that people’s ability to endure the hardships of life depends on people’s ability to connect. The companionship Robert Neville gets from his dog Sam protects him from breaking apart completely. Hence, it is evident that human beings need their colleagues to deal with life challenges and get solutions for persistent problems.

Lawrence, F. (Director). I am a Legend [Film]. Village Roadshow Pictures.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2022, December 1). The Vector of the I Am Legend Film. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-vector-of-the-i-am-legend-film/

"The Vector of the I Am Legend Film." IvyPanda , 1 Dec. 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/the-vector-of-the-i-am-legend-film/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'The Vector of the I Am Legend Film'. 1 December.

IvyPanda . 2022. "The Vector of the I Am Legend Film." December 1, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-vector-of-the-i-am-legend-film/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Vector of the I Am Legend Film." December 1, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-vector-of-the-i-am-legend-film/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Vector of the I Am Legend Film." December 1, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-vector-of-the-i-am-legend-film/.

• Neville Brody and the Fact of Typography
• Functional Analysis of KV1.2 and Paddle Chimera Kv Channels in Planar Lipid Bilayers
• Rabies Dangers and Vaccination
• Rabies in South Africa: Tropical Disease Control
• Immunization of the Wildlife Population Against Rabies
• Rabies: Hidden Danger or Past Threat?
• The Virtuoso Singers: The Prima Donna and the Castrato
• Works by Philip Wylie and Richard Matheson Review
• The Augustus of Prima Porta vs. the Aulus Metellus
• The Statue of Augustus August From Prima Porta
• Meanings and Messages About Gender and Race in “The Hate U Give” by Tillman Jr
• The Heroism Concept in Two Kubrick's Films
• Chicano Cinema: The Plot of Zoot Suit
• The Use of Surrealism in "An Andalusian Dog" by Buñuel
• Analysis of “A Study of Pink” In Sherlock Series Directed by Hayao Miyazaki

• Want Writing Tips?

BOOK VERSUS FILM: I Am Legend Showdown

I first read I Am Legend , by Richard Matheson, when I was in my late teens and I thought it was brilliant. At the time of reading, and I think this is important to keep in mind, I was coming off the back of Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick, Robert Heinlein and Kurt Vonnegut, Alfred Bester and the like. I was reading the authors whose ideas would go on to shape the future of speculative fiction in both film and television in ways even they couldn’t have dreamed of. And those guys could dream.

I Am Legend blew me away. It gave me a scenario I was vaguely familiar with (though the saturation of today’s dystopian world-scape was a few years away yet) and a main character I could get behind. And if I felt he was a little cold at times, well that was fine.

One of the benefits of reading something written by a different generation is the amount of leeway you can give the settings and behaviours when it comes to things like technology, social structures and motives. As long as they’re serving a central plot that really fires your imagination.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the work, I Am Legend tells us about Robert Neville, the apparent sole survivor of a pandemic that kills off most of the population, turning those it doesn’t kill into something resembling vampires. The cause of the pandemic is war related, and though these days the implication of chemical warfare wouldn’t need to be explained in any great detail, Matheson uses dust storms and mosquitos as his conduit.

Whilst Neville may have the city of Los Angeles as his playground during daylight hours, he is a lonely man, constantly on the verge of insanity, struggling to impose some sense of order onto his life. He spends his days seeking out the nests of vampires and dispatching them with a stake through the heart, and his nights barricaded in his own home, beset and besieged by this new breed of terror.

We learn through flashbacks the fate of his family (his wife and child died in the pandemic, then he had to kill his wife after she returned as a vampire), and of the relationship he builds with a stray dog. Though it only lasts a week and, it’s fair to say, doesn’t end well.

For me though, it’s at its end where this book is most powerful. I remember well, the revelatory feeling I had after putting the book down, the sense of having experienced something profound.

In the film, Will Smith plays Robert Neville, a government scientist who finds himself at the epi-centre of an outbreak in New York. He refuses to leave the city because he’s convinced he can find a way to reverse the disease and cure people, and he believes Ground Zero is the place to do it from.

It’s a fantastic performance from Smith. I’ve always rated him as an actor, but in this he shines. Indeed, he has to carry the film for huge parts of it, not because of a substandard script or poor pacing, but because he’s the only person in it. In the scenes where he visits the video rental store for example, and we discover he’s placed mannequins in strategic places to have conversations with them, he gives us a glimpse into the psyche of Robert Neville. At any time, he could take all the videos back to his house and view them at his leisure, but he doesn’t, he gives himself a reason to get out, to take a break from the madness, and interact with ’people’ again.

Following an incident which involves his dog chasing a deer into a seemingly abandoned building, Neville ‘kidnaps’ a female vampire and takes her back to his lab to experiment on her. The Alpha male of the nest, showing signs of intelligence Neville is in denial about them having, lays a trap for him and after a skirmish which results in casualties for both sides, Neville finds himself at home with anger to burn.

There is a reckoning then, of some description as he goes out at night seeking the vampires. He’s at his lowest ebb here and resigned to death before a stranger and her son rescue him when it looks like all might be lost. Unfortunately, as she is taking him back to his house, unbeknownst to any of them, they are tracked by the vampires.

Which leads us to the final scene…

A Comparison

Though I’m a librarian by trade, I’m also a huge film fan and for me I Am Legend scores highly in both formats. I first saw the film in the year of its release, 2007. I believe there is merit to both versions of the story, and that the changes made for the film adaptation were, for the most part, beneficial and more suited to a modern audience.

Whilst the book gives you a great sense of what it’s like to be all alone, the film picks that theme up and runs with it. Though it shows us the death of his wife and child, I suspect it’s mainly because the film shows Neville in places we’re so used to seeing heavily populated, with commotion all around, that it resonates so much.

There’s a scene where Neville is playing golf on the wing of a military fighter plane, which is itself on the bridge of a naval vessel of some description, hitting golf balls into the emptiness. It’s a perfect image of where he finds himself in this new landscape. King of the world, perhaps, but also its only subject.

The film serves the story very well and looking at it through a modern eye, I think most of the changes they made in the adaptation strengthened the piece.

The relationship Neville has with the dog is all the better for us knowing both that it was a relationship that had built up over 3 years, not just a week, and, perhaps more pertinently, a link to his daughter.

However, with all that being said, the main difference between the film and the book, for me, still comes down to one thing. So let’s talk about the endings.

Endings and Conclusions

There’s two versions to the climax of the film.

Version 1: Big bada boom, Neville dies, as do the nest of vampires.

Version 2: Neville lives, as do the nest of vampires. Slight nod to the book in this ending, but I do mean slight.

So now, as this piece draws to a close, let me try and tell you why the film will never be as good as the book. Let me try and tell you why Robert Matheson’s I Am Legend will remain a classic long after Will Smith and everybody who watched the film has gone.

It’s so easy to think that astute social commentary coupled with a plot twist, is a by-product of these more-learned times, but it isn’t, and in the final pages of I Am Legend , Richard Matheson absolutely nails it.

With his last page, he’ll have you shaking your head and smiling ruefully at how perceptive he’s been, how cleverly he’s crafted the story you’ve just read, guiding you away from the kind of observations you naturally turn from in your own life.

With his last line, he’ll make you sit down and think about everything you’ve just read from a completely different angle, and then wonder what it means for you and your own existence. You’ll muse upon it for days, years even if I’m anything to go by.

There were many improvements in the film, no doubt, and had they been brave enough to adhere to the original all the way through, then perhaps it would surpass the book in its telling. But it didn’t.

So for me, whilst I really enjoyed the film and have watched it a number of times since, the book will always hold top spot in my heart. I can’t escape the structure of that ending, the way Matheson delicately draws you in and then pulls the rug from under your feet.

No, the film was good, very good even, but the book … Legend .

BIO : To find out more about ThankBookFor, head to ThankBookFor.com . To listen to The ThankBookFor Hour, during which you can find our Film Vs Book Club segment about I Am Legend , head to www.wcrfm.com and click listen again. Tom Bissell is listed on the right-hand side. That’s me.

To tweet at me and tell me how wrong I am, @ThankBookFor or @TBFTomB .

3 thoughts on “BOOK VERSUS FILM: I Am Legend Showdown”

Oh man, you’ve convinced me to get the book! I enjoyed watching the movie, although it was very bleak and the ending was sad. Awesome post, read a few of your other comparison posts, too, and liked them.

Really glad you like the Book Verus Film posts! I lovelovelove the book of I AM LEGEND *and* I love the film too, real powerhouse performance from Smith

Great piece. Really enjoy the movies l, and love the book and Matheson as an author.

(Not sure if you’re limited to word count, as a full 3 movies vs, each other, and book would have been the perfect article, for me)

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

FREE BOOK! Crime writer LV Hay (The Other Twin) brings forth three new short stories from her dark mind and poison pen: In Plain Sight, Killing Me Softly and Hell And High Water.

Beautiful places hide dark secrets… Known as England’s ‘Little Switzerland’, the Exmoor village of Lynmouth is located on the doorstep of the dramatic Valley of The Rocks. Famous for its cliff railway and breath-taking scenery, Lynmouth has inspired many writers, including RD Blackmore’s Lorna Doone and 19th Century poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who honeymooned there in 1812.  Devon author LV Hay uses her local knowledge to bring forth the claustrophobic, dark domestic noir she has become known for. Grab your free book now!

I Am Legend (Movie Review)

Jon schnaars's rating: ★ ★ ½ director: francis lawrence | release date: 2007.

In one of the opening scenes of “I Am Legend,” Dr. Robert Neville screams through the deserted streets of New York City in a pristine, racing-car-red 2008 Mustang. It’s scene that conveys the destruction wrought on that city at the hands of an apocalyptic virus. Neville, played by Will Smith, is on the hunt for deer meat, literally chasing a herd of deer that has made the gradually decaying streets of New York its home.

The motivations for these actions seem multifaceted: first there is Neville, a virologist formerly with the U.S. Army, who, before the outbreak of a man made virus, had been tasked with finding a cure. Stranded alone in New York, he hunts to procure fresh meat, but also for the pleasure of it. With his dog Samantha, he rides and then moseys through Midtown and Times Square, thus resolving the scene’s second purpose of illustrating the level of both isolation and devastation.

The third element motivating this scene is the car itself. Shamelessly thrust into the action, the filmmakers feel no need to tell us where this car came from or where it goes when the scene ends. Apparently the Mustang’s existence is solely to illustrate just how fun a car like that is to drive, and how pretty it looks when it’s moving so fast.

This scene serves as a microcosm of “I Am Legend,” a film that may be best read as the lesser, PG-13 rated sibling of “28 Days Later.” While “I Am Legend” hews closely to the set-up of the novel that serves as its source material: military scientists struggles to stay alive and solve the mystery of mankind’s demise in a post-apocalyptic, urban wasteland; the filmmakers chose to abandon many of the thematic elements and plot devices that have made the book a classic of both the science fiction and horror genres. Instead, “I Am Legend”—directed by Francis Lawrence, whose only previous work of note was 2005’s “Constantine”—is content to take the road more frequently traveled in unfurling a film designed to upset as few people as possible.

Above all else, “Legend” should be viewed as the holiday blockbuster fare that it is. There are Christian undertones for the Bible belt, and the type of lazy, pedestrian intellectualism that permeates big budget films that want to seem smart. The truly sad part is that the source material, Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel of the same name, shines as a truly high water mark of science fiction and horror literature.

Adapted here by Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman (the latter a scripting giant responsible for films ranging from “Batman & Robin” to “Cinderella Man”), “I Am Legend” succeeds largely by aiming low. For those familiar with more recent apocalypse horror, there will be little new material to hold interest. But what it does do, “Legend” does with aplomb. Smith succeeds in putting the film on his back and shouldering it through the slower patches. And the effects, if not the finest ever to appear on screen, are quite affecting.

Toward the end of the film, Neville stands on the wing of a fighter plane as he hits golf balls off the boat he has boarded into the city. Stopping to admire one shot, he turns to his dog and says, “I’m getting pretty good at this.” Will Smith is getting pretty good at this. For all intents and purposes, it would appear that Smith has supplanted the leading men of yesterday, the Tom Cruises and Brad Pitts, as the go to guy for films like “Legend.”

He’s an engaging and capable actor, and here, as with films like “I, Robot” and “Bad Boys,” he really shines. Similarly, Lawrence seems to emerge here as a reliable helmer for studios’ future bloated budgets. He never truly wows—just as “I Am Legend” never truly gets over the hump from run-of-the-mill blockbuster to truly enjoyable film—but he seems capable and confident in his choices. As a horror film for the masses, “Legend” could have been much worse, but Lawrence supplied just enough style to make things interesting.

Maybe most telling of “Legend,” is that of the three films to now have been adapted from Matheson’s novel, this is the first to take the same title. There’s a reason that “The Last Man on Earth” and “The Omega Man” shied away, and it is because Matheson crafted his story with such strong literary and cultural allusions: wedding it to the entire history of horror all the way to its Gothic roots.

Instead of embracing that rigorous material though, “Legend” supplants it and justifies its title with a half-baked theme of perseverance in the face of struggle drawn from the music of Bob Marley. A tremendous musician, no doubt, Marley feels out of place here, and his iconic reggae sound seems woefully inadequate when held up to the grand scope of Armageddon. What Marley is though, is uncontroversial and easily recognizable to even the most amateur music fan. He is a fitting partner then for a horror film built not for the horror aficionado, but for blockbuster consuming masses.

Jon Schnaars

Writer/podcast co-host/business guy.

If you have questions about doing business with BGH, this is the man to speak with. Jon also enjoys the fancier things, like monocles and silent-era horror films.

• Jon Schnaars's Profile

Check It Out

Primal scream: exploring horror from a mental health lens.

Natalie, a licensed clinical psychologist, looks at what your favorite horror films get right (and wrong) about mental health.

In-Extremis: Legal Analysis of Horror

Are you interested in the legal implications of your favorite horror films for strictly educational purposes? Have you met our friend Adam?

Play Along With Our Horror Movie Drinking Games!

One Thursday a month, Sophie lays out the rules for a horror film drinking game! Browse our past entires and be on the look out for new ones.

Movies Like I Am Legend

Hush (2016).

• The Podcast

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

You review: I Am Legend

I Am Legend, starring Will Smith

The critics agree that if you're looking for a big, plenty-of-bang-for-your-buck action blockbuster, I Am Legend is probably going to be the movie to help you sweat out some of those festive season toxins.

A lightning-paced ride through a post-apocalyptic Manhattan where all the human beings bar Will Smith have been killed by a virus or transformed into zombie-like killers, this is a truly Hollywood movie, with all the positives and negatives that entails. As The Movie Blog notes , there is "a little bit more to Legend than just popcorn. Not much, but a little."

"I find that digital, rage-filled zombies halve in dramatic interest with every second that passes," writes our own Peter Bradshaw . "No one, though, could fail to be impressed by the gobsmacking digital creations of an empty, ruined Manhattan, a jungle with real zoo-bred animals roaming around."

"Smith deliver a surprisingly moving performance as he wanders empty New York streets going slowly ga-ga," writes the BBC's Jamie Russell . "Some cartoonish CGI and a mangled screenplay that misses the novel's point are downsides but the apocalyptic vision brings definite chills."

Carina Chocano of the LA Times likens the movie to that other tale of post-apocalyptic zombies, 28 Days Later , except with a hero who is rather better equipped to deal with the disastrous circumstances in which he finds himself. "Conversely, the good guy here is no incidental plebe," she writes. "He's Robert Neville (Smith), thank you very much, decorated colonel, brilliant scientist, fortification specialist, booby trap whiz, moneybags, babe magnet, art collector, dog lover, hunter, gatherer, officer, gentleman, you name it."

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times , meanwhile, wishes studio executives hadn't felt compelled to meddle with the details of the 1954 sci-fi tale by Robert Matheson upon which the film is based. "In the original novel Neville cultivated garlic and used mirrors, crosses and sharpened stakes against his enemies, who were like traditional vampires, not super-strong zombies," he writes. "I am not sure it is an advance to make him a scientist, arm him and change the nature of the creatures; Matheson developed a kind of low-key realism that was doubly effective."

What did you think of I Am Legend? Did it tick all the blockbuster boxes? Or did Smith's performance have you rooting for the zombies?

Comments (…)

Most viewed.

Notice: All forms on this website are temporarily down for maintenance. You will not be able to complete a form to request information or a resource. We apologize for any inconvenience and will reactivate the forms as soon as possible.

• DVD & Streaming

I Am Legend

• Action/Adventure , Drama , Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Content Caution

In Theaters

• Will Smith as Robert Neville; Alice Braga as Anna

Home Release Date

• Francis Lawrence

Distributor

• Warner Bros.

Movie Review

Imagine New York City without the crowds. No queues for Broadway shows. No sardine-packed subways. No hustle and bustle in Times Square—except, of course, for the occasional herd of deer.

It’s not as great as it sounds. Trust Robert Neville on that point.

The year is 2012, and Robert is the last fully human resident in New York—perhaps in the world. Nearly everyone else was killed three years earlier by a horrific mutation of what was supposed to be a cure for cancer. Those who didn’t die outright turned into hairless, hungry monsters—light-loathing, zombified, vampiric creatures that hunt anything that moves.

Robert, a military scientist, is immune to the disease, and he spends much of his time developing vaccines—using his own blood as the core ingredient—that he hopes will cure his sunlight-phobic neighbors. He’s not had much luck: All of his less-than-willing subjects have died.

In his spare time, Robert whiles away the daylight by cooking, washing his dog, Sam, and going on inner-city hunting expeditions. He watches DVDs, too—regularly trekking down to the local rental store and chatting with the mannequins he’s placed there. Every day, he broadcasts that he’ll spend high noon at the seaport off East River Drive, where he desperately hopes another living soul will find him.

[ It’s impossible to discuss this film’s content without spoiling certain plot twists. So this review occasionally does so. ]

Positive Elements

They say man’s best friend is his dog. This is particularly true in Robert’s case, because his only companion is his German shepherd. He gently scolds Sam when she doesn’t eat her veggies. And he sometimes sleeps with her in the bathtub when the vampirish racket outside gets too frightening. He’s completely committed to her safety and well-being.

When Sam runs into a dark warehouse, Robert follows—even though he knows that vampires congregate in dark places like this, and his chances of surviving go down with each passing minute. “I gotta go, Sam,” he hisses in the darkness. “I gotta go.” But he doesn’t—not until he finds the dog and battles a beastie or two.

Robert shows the same dedication and tenacity in his work. In flashback mode, we learn that Robert had a chance to escape the city to “safety,” but instead sent his wife and daughter away while he stayed behind. “I can still fix this,” he tells his wife. Three years later, he’s still trying to fix things.

Robert eventually encounters other survivors and finds his cure—though only after he’s hopelessly cornered by a horde of vampires. He gives the vaccine to one of the survivors, tells her to hide in a secure shaft until daylight and then faces the vampires.

Spiritual Elements

I Am Legend is, at its core, a surprisingly sophisticated—but grim—rumination on faith and sacrifice. Robert is something of a Christ-like figure, whose work to “save” the city’s mutants lasts three years and requires, literally, an outpouring of his own blood and the sacrifice of his own life. The comparison is made more explicit by a magazine cover, hung on Robert’s refrigerator with a magnet, that depicts Robert in full military garb and the word “Savior” written beside him. Someone—most likely Robert—apparently added a chalky question mark beside the word.

Robert is also a doubting everyman whose life is filled with pain and his world with creatures that want to eat him. His Job-like trials bring him to the breaking point when he finally encounters another survivor, Anna. She tells Robert that it was God’s will they should meet. “If we listen, you can hear God’s plan,” she says.

“There is no God!” he shouts. “There is no God!”

Then, when things are at their darkest, Robert seems to change his mind—and proceeds to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Telltale spiritual touchstones are scattered throughout the film. The shape of a butterfly is used to hint at the fact that even the most ugly things—the vampires—can be made whole and beautiful again. Posters pasted onto now-vacant buildings read, “God still loves us.” Before Robert’s family separates, they pray. When Anna rescues Robert from the vampires, we see a cross dangling from her rearview mirror. A bucolic colony of survivors looks almost Amish, and an old-fashioned whitewashed church is the colony’s most notable landmark. When Anna looks at the photos of Robert’s experimental subjects—all of whom died—she exclaims, “My God!” “God didn’t do this, Anna,” Robert says. “We did.”

The film casts the late reggae artist Bob Marley as something of a spiritual sage, with Robert quoting him as saying, among other things, “Light up the darkness.” It’s Marley’s “Redemption Song” that plays as the credits roll.

Sexual Content

One vacant house has a pair of artsy, black-and-white ink drawings of nude females. The last subject Robert “collects” is—or was—obviously female; it wears a revealing tank top over its grey, almost transparent skin. Robert shows off his built physique by exercising without a shirt.

Violent Content

After he places his wife and daughter on a rescue helicopter, Robert helplessly watches them crash into another out-of-control chopper. (The scene cuts before the actual collision, but not before we see one body fall to the river below.) Robert shoots down a misplaced mannequin and, in a panic, pours bullets into several nearby windows. He then gets snared by a sophisticated trap that leaves him hanging upside down several feet above the ground. When he saws through the cord holding him, he falls—his knife blade embedding itself into his thigh. A lion kills a deer in Times Square.

As for the vampires themselves, they’re limber and fast, and they strike with lethal, animalistic quickness. One sinks its teeth into Robert’s neck and shoulder and shakes him around like a dog with a sofa cushion. Horrific mutated dogs attack Robert and Sam with wicked zeal. And a vampire begins to crawl into Robert’s car window with the intention of eating him. A mass of vampires crash repeatedly into a barrier of Plexiglas.

More often than not, though, the creatures get worse than they give. Robert shoots several, firing five or six times into their bodies. When Robert lunges out a window with a vampire on his back, the thing—now exposed to sunlight—flops about on the ground in agony before it dies. Robert captures a vampire to experiment on by knocking it out with his gun. Furious, frantic and at the end of his rope (possibly attempting suicide), he mows down dozens with his SUV. And, when the vampires attack his residence, we discover that he’s ringed his home with explosives, which he detonates—thereby killing several more. He blows up another batch with a grenade.

The hardest bit of violence to watch comes after Sam is mauled by an infected dog. Robert carries his bloodied companion to his car and takes her to the lab, where he injects her with the newest trial vaccine. He then sits on the floor and holds the dog on his lap, singing to her—until her hair starts to come off in clumps and she begins to breathe heavily, a sign she’s about to turn very bad. When Sam lunges for Robert’s face, Robert holds her by her neck and strangles her. The camera focuses on Robert’s anguished, tear-streaked face as we hear the dog gasp and scratch and struggle for life.

Crude or Profane Language

A couple of misuses of both Jesus’ and God’s names. Robert says “h—” and “d–n” about three times apiece.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Robert takes a handful of unidentified (presumably pain) pills the morning after he accidentally stabs himself.

Other Negative Elements

Robert pilfers pretty much anything he needs or wants. But everyone he’s “stealing” from is either dead or not in need of canned tomato paste. This raises a dilemma that goes something like this: “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Or, more precisely in this case, “If you’re the only human left on Earth, is it wrong to eat food from the grocery store without paying?” Interestingly, Robert actually makes a point of returning the movies he “checks out” from the video store. (Probably so he can hang out with those cute mannequins.)

I Am Legend is based on a 1954 Richard Matheson sci-fi novel of the same name. The book has inspired at least two other films, The Last Man on Earth starring Vincent Price and The Omega Man starring Charlton Heston.

Despite the book’s popularity in Hollywood, neither those first two adaptations nor this most recent one have been completely faithful to Matheson’s novel. That story forces readers to mull, at least for a bit, whether Robert might be as monstrous as his enemies—the new race of vampires to whom the day-walking human is their version of the bogeyman.

This Will Smith-fronted tale is all about heroism, selfless sacrifice and final redemption. An enterprising movie buff might even be able to craft an I Am Legend devotional from it.

And such a tome might even sell reasonably well. Assuming, that is, its intended audience doesn’t flee in terror. Because I Am Legend is both stark and disturbing. Robert’s sense of isolation and loneliness is painfully palpable. And on top of the loads of violence, the film’s scariest moments take place when audiences can’t see anything at all. It’s heartbreaking and horrible and very, very creepy.

So, on second thought, forget about that devotional. This film has a few things going for it, spiritually speaking, but when folks make their way to the exits afterwards, they’re not going to be pondering the nature of redemption: They’ll be thinking about poor ol’ Sam, checking their rearview mirrors for vampires and locking their doors extra tight when they get home.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

Latest Reviews

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

Ghostbusters II

Weekly Reviews Straight to your Inbox!

I Am Legend (2007)

• User Reviews

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews

• User Ratings
• External Reviews
• Metacritic Reviews
• Full Cast and Crew
• Release Dates
• Official Sites
• Company Credits
• Filming & Production
• Technical Specs
• Plot Summary
• Plot Keywords
• Parents Guide

Did You Know?

• Crazy Credits
• Alternate Versions
• Connections
• Soundtracks

Photo & Video

• Photo Gallery
• Trailers and Videos

Related Items

• External Sites

Related lists from IMDb users

Recently Viewed

Home / Essay Samples / Literature / I Am Legend / I Am Legend: Comparative Analysis Of The Book And The Movie

I Am Legend: Comparative Analysis Of The Book And The Movie

• Category: Literature
• Topic: I Am Legend

Pages: 5 (2138 words)

Views: 2105

• Downloads: -->

--> ⚠️ Remember: This essay was written and uploaded by an--> click here.

Found a great essay sample but want a unique one?

are ready to help you with your essay

You won’t be charged yet!

Into The Wild Essays

Frankenstein Essays

The Story of An Hour Essays

Animal Farm Essays

Fahrenheit 451 Essays

Related Essays

We are glad that you like it, but you cannot copy from our website. Just insert your email and this sample will be sent to you.

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service  and  Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Your essay sample has been sent.

In fact, there is a way to get an original essay! Turn to our writers and order a plagiarism-free paper.

samplius.com uses cookies to offer you the best service possible.By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .--> -->