i am legend

WARNING!!!

Spoilers alert! If you haven't watch the movie yet and wish to catch it anytime soon and do not wish to know anything about the ending, please discontinue reading. Oh. And if you're a fan of Will Smith, I sincerely apologize if there's any word in this post will offend you. Thank you.

Okay now, I walked into the cinema without having any expectation of this movie. I did not even know what this movie is all about. I just know that it is a movie with Will Smith in it. The only Will Smith's movie I ever love is Independence Day (because Bill Pullman plays the President in the movie!). Why do I even want to watch this movie, I have no idea. Anyway, it was a free treat for me, so no complaints whatsoever.


Here's the plot of the movie which I got from Wikipedia (because I'm too lazy to write it on my own):

A man-made virus called KV (or Krippen Virus, originally created as a cancer vaccine) wipes out the population of the world in 2009, leaving virologist Robert Neville (Will Smith) the last human survivor in New York City and possibly the world. The virus immediately killed 90% of the people on the planet, roughly 5.4 billion. Less than 1% of humans are immune, leaving roughly 12 million people unaffected. The remaining 588 million people were infected but did not die; they instead began exhibiting early symptoms of rabies and then lost all normal human behavior, degenerating into a primal state driven by cannibalistic hunger, in turn killing a majority of the immune. Neville is watched by these "infected" people. The infected are strongly affected by UV radiation, so they avoid sunlight and hide in the dark underground and in buildings (called hives by Neville) then swarm out at night. By 2012, Neville has not seen another normal human being since the virus' release three years ago, and suspects that the infected have succeeded in killing the remainder of the survivors. Neville finds himself outnumbered by the infected and running out of time.

Neville is also haunted by the intense psychological trauma not only of having everyone he ever knew die, but also being completely isolated from all human contact for three years; his only companions are his dog, Sam, and various department store dummies he has set up and assigned names. Neville eventually comes up with a treatment for the virus, but initially it doesn't appear to work. When he is forced to choke his dog companion to death after an attack by the Infected, he nearly commits suicide by attacking a large group of Infected, but is rescued by a former Red Cross member, Anna, and a child named Ethan. She tells Neville about survivors in the mountains and how the cold made the virus ineffective. Anna also mentions a survivor colony in Vermont but Neville doesn't believe her, telling her that everyone is dead. When the Infected attack Neville's home and overrun it, he, Anna, and Ethan rush into his laboratory in an attempt to survive. When they seal themselves in with one of the Infected Neville was studying, they realize that the ice Neville put on its bed had enabled the treatment to start working. The key component was lowering body temperature, as Anna's clue about the people in the mountain told him. Neville quickly draws blood containing the cure from the patient and gives the vial to Anna. Neville locks Anna and Ethan in a safe with the vial and sacrifices himself, killing the Infected attempting to kill them. Anna and Ethan eventually travel to an isolated community of survivors in Vermont where the two give the cure to the guards.

Definitely one interesting movie, no? It kinda remind me of the movie The Descent, with the cannibalistic creature and all. But that's where the similarity ended anyway. The rest of the movie is on its own, or rather on the shoulder of Robert Neville and his one and only companion, Sam.

The movie itself is kinda slow-paced for my own taste but it did got me sitting at the edge of my seat at a certain point. That damned Darkseeker (the Infected) gives me the heebies-jeebies alright. They are downright nasty and creepy and blood-thirsty.

Overall, I thought the movie wasn't bad at all. Will Smith is pretty convincing as the traumatized and isolated Robert Neville. I have to say, though, that the canine, Sam is really amazing. Is he Will Smith's dog in the real life? Because he seems so chummy with Will Smith.

This movie is a one-man show only and it belongs to Will Smith. I don't really like Will Smith, so I was kinda wondering when will other people show up in the movie. Other than that, I Am Legend is rather good. For these reasons:

• Robert Neville memorized and mouthed the dialogue from the first Shrek movie without any error
• Robert Neville dies in the end

I give 3 out of 5 stars for I Am Legend. Next movie to catch: National Treasure: Books of Secrets.