It's a very strange film, not least because you'd tend to think Smith is miscast in the role of a scientist, but he acquits himself as admirably as usual. What makes it strange is that he makes dread pronouncements like "social order has completely broken down", and yet misses the very obvious implication that the monster who leads the hunt against him is hounding him because it's his daughter Smith captures for his experiments.
It's also quite a hard film to watch at times, notably when he has to kill his dog - his sole companion for the first half of the movie. The effects of his loneliness are shown in a quite light-hearted (though still creepy) way at the beginning, when he visits the video store, but when one of his 'friends' is used to bait a trap, and he later runs into another couple of survivors (predictably), his fragile sanity is very well played.
Not having read the book, I don't know how close this movie adaptation is... but it does have a saccharine ending. Perhaps not a happy ending in the traditional Hollywood sense, but it's rather less believable than the cinema ending to 28 Days Later (let alone the original ending!).
Several background details will, no doubt, raise an appropriate smile. My favourite would have to be the Batman/Superman movie poster prominently displayed in one scene. Are you toying with us, Warner Bros?
Before the movie, Paul and I were browsing in the nearby shops, and overheard some guy in the DVD section of HMV telling his companion "This is what I Am Legend is based on". He held in his hand not the book by Richard Matheson, but the DVD of The Omega Man, starring Charlton Heston. It is wrong to wish such people dead?
On the train home, a grubby, chavvy 'youth' offered his review to a couple of grubby, chavvy friends: "Da reason iss shit, yeah, is dat 'e kills 'imsewf at da end... E's da hero..." It would hardly be worth pointing out that there's a lot of movie before that happens. And to put it in perspective, yes he kills himself, but in doing so he gives two other survivors the opportunity to escape. It's what's known in the trade as 'a noble sacrifice' and it shows that, while he wasn't exactly the nicest person on the planet (even with the planet's population reduced so dramatically), he wasn't such a monster that he'd let his own sense of hopelessness get in the way of the survival of others.
Fun note: the 'Creature Vocals' were provided by Michael A Patton... a name which should be familiar to fans of Faith No More. It's the very same Mike Patton. I kid thee not.
My mate Paul goes back to work tomorrow, to do the Year End accounts for his employer. He mentioned that he's likely to be looking for a new job in the New Year, largely because the late nights of Year End are getting him down and because, this year, his boss warned him to keep next Sunday free, in case they all have to come in to finish the work. Paul was going to ask for a day off in lieu, I suggested giving them the option of paying him double time (because they wouldn't normally, even for a Sunday...) or time and a half, plus the day off in lieu.
When I brought him up to date on the events at my work, he was rather incredulous. I can't say I blame him... but that's why I'm hoping for a swift escape.
In the meantime, for those who were wondering...
18
(the image behind the number of five year olds I could take in a fight may be blocked by some anti-spyware programs)
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