I Am Legend

I watched I Am Legend last night. It was pretty good. To me, anything Will Smith does is good -- I really like him as an actor. I'd read reviews and write ups about how he's the only actor in Hollywood who'd be able to pull off being the ONLY person in the movie for over an hour. That's so true -- and he did it so well. In case you didn't know (and I'll try not to spoil any of the plot for you), the movie I Am Legend is based on a Richard Matheson book (of the same name) written in 1947 and takes place in 'futuristic' 1976. They updated the plot to make the movie take place in 2012. It's reminds me of 28 Days Later, where a virus is mistakenly unleashed on humanity and kills several billion people... those it doesn't kill, devolve into animalistic, vampire type creatures. They lose all characteristics of intelligent humans and live solely on instinct to feed and survive. A very small percentage of people are immune to the virus -- and almost all of those become food for the infected. Will Smith's character, Robert Neville, is an Army colonel and scientist, and the only uninfected person left in New York City. He spends his days hunting the nocturnal 'animals' and working in his lab to find a cure. At night he barricades himself in his house and prays for dawn.

While I really liked the movie, it had way too many plot holes for me to ignore. Some books are so detailed and in depth, there's no way it all can be transferred to the screen without losing about half of it. Most movies like this, the fantasy laced reality plots, I tell myself going into it not to look too closely at the details --- just assume it could all happen, don't apply logic. The perfect example of this is Tom Cruise's War of the Worlds. In one scene, an airline jumbo jet crashes into a neighborhood, destroying houses & everything else in the area, but miraculously leaving Tom's minivan untouched in the driveway. That's just one of several examples in the movie, but you get my point. I Am Legend is like that in several ways. I didn't notice so much inconsistencies like that, but more over chunks of plot that were left out/missing. It left me wondering, well what about this and what about that? It would mention a subplot line, but then just skate over it to something else. It left me thinking, 'wait! I want to know more about that'!

I've read several of Richard Matheson's books, discovered him first because of just that. I saw What Dreams May Come in 1998 and was left wanting to know more. I KNEW there was more to the story that wasn't in the movie. I've since read Hell House and Somewhere in Time (another of my favorite movies). I really like his books - they leave you wanting more once you're done.

So now I Am Legend has now been added to my wish list of books to read soon...