I Am Alone
Will Smith: Last Man
Standing?
By David Luhrssen
Genetic engineering is no panacea in
I Am Legend, not after a genetically altered measles virus, touted by a
smug medical researcher as the cure for cancer, triggers a pandemic already
familiar to fans of 28 Days Later and its sequel. The virus reduces the
bulk of humankind to snarling, murderous, monomaniacal zombies. A few of us are
mysteriously immune and must fight the bloodsuckers, red in fang and claw, for
survival.
I Am Legend stars Will Smith as Robert Neville, the
last man on Manhattan after the army blew up the bridges and quarantined the
island before, as far as anyone knows, being transformed into additional
brigades of zombies. Smith has the place pretty much to himself during daylight
hours—just him and Sam, his devoted German shepherd, driving the empty streets,
stocking up on free groceries, DVDs and CDs from the abandoned stores. It’s not
entirely idyllic, however. The alarm on Neville’s watch is set for half an hour
to sundown, time enough for him to scramble home and lock down until
dawn.
The zombies, hairless and albino pale, can’t stand light and only
emerge at night. Vague unease about what may lurk in the dark corners is
maintained until the lurkers are revealed in a disorienting, well-filmed and
tense scene in the bowels of the dead city. Neville was a famous military
medical researcher before the pandemic struck, a scientist and a warrior, with
an elaborate laboratory in the cellar of his elegant Washington Square
brownstone where he works on a vaccine against the zombie virus. When
catastrophe strikes, Neville stands at his post, sending his wife and child away
in the evacuation only to die before his eyes when their chopper
crashes.
Smith has grown into one of Hollywood’s most likable, bankable
everyman stars, an African-American Tom Hanks whose appeal transcends racial
boundaries. In I AmLegend, he gets a role similar to Hanks in
Cast Away, with Sam replacing the volleyball as his only companion. As
Neville, Smith shifts between several modes, humorous with his dog and then
dead-on with his automatic rifle, trading unfazed cool for frustration when his
vaccine fails in lab tests, melancholy in memory at his family’s fate and
devastated when he has to kill Sam after the dog falls prey to canine
zombies.
Several of the plot pivots seem a bit wobbly. Would New York
City’s power grid remain intact years after it was last maintained? But overall,
director Francis Lawrence (whose previous film was the crummy
Constantine) delivers a striking vision of civilization knocked off its
pedestal. Combining real backdrops with computer inserted images of weeds poking
through the Manhattan pavement and deer darting through streets clogged with
abandoned cars, Lawrence conjures up a memorable vista of a great city slowly
passing into ruin, the posters for Rent and Hairspray fading as
little stirs in daylight beyond the clucking pigeons. In an elegiac recurring
scene, each day Neville broadcasts on AM radio, informing anyone listening that
he will be at a certain wharf on the harbor at high noon, waiting for any human
left alive.
I Am Legend is the latest adaptation of Richard
Matheson’s 1954 novel, the source of Charleton Heston’s popular 1971 movie
The Omega Man and an earlier adaptation starring Vincent Price. In recent
years zombies have almost become a film genre onto themselves as they made their
way from midnight movies and into the brightly lit multiplexes. The voracious
creatures may have become a stand-in for anxiety over dehumanization as well as
more specific issues too big for clear solutions, such as the specter of avian
flu and other pandemics or even the civilization-wrecking potential of global
climate change.
Perhaps the world we know sits on uncertain ground and
will be overturned in a great upheaval. I Am Legend suggests that
humanity will be one of the causes of catastrophe but also possesses the
resources to endure.
..Search Shepherd Express
- Tue
2 - Wed
3 - Thu
4 - Fri
5 - Sat
6 - Sun
7 - Mon
8
Search in Events
2008-12-02 7pm
Film
Fall 2008 Human Trafficking Awareness Week
Become Aware and Take Action
Come Join Trafficking Ends with Action for Fall 2008 Human Trafficking Awareness Week. Monday Dec. 1st "Trafficking in South East Asia." Tuesday Dec. 2nd "Human Trafficking: Two Sides of the Same Coin." Thursday Dec. 4th "Gina Allende Speaks on Human Trafficking in Wisconsin." All events will be held in the UWM Fireside Lounge starting at 7pm an
Location: Central Milwaukee
Although separated by an ocean and multiple time zones, the Australian Outback bears remarkable resemblance to the American West. Both encompass mesas towering over rocky, dusty deserts shimmering like a mirage under unforgiving sunlight. Whip-snapping co
It can't touch Harry Potter for scope of popularity but in some pockets of pop culture, the Twilight series has reached Beatlemania in intensity. The "young adult" novels about a handsome teenage vampire boy and the mortal girl who loves him have sold 17
No, we didn't ask for an album featuring another recording of "Breathe," leading into "Time," leading into "Breathe (Reprise)," as happens on tracks two through four on Live in Gdansk. But Pink Floyd completists (we are legion) will want it anyway. Howeve
Jorge "El Guero" Hernandez may be the best-known regional Mexican artist with Milwaukee roots. Most of a decade has passed since he and brother Rogelio moved to San Antonio, but El Guero's Banda Centenario still nurtures a unique take on the often-manic D
The last decade has not been kind to Milwaukee’s German restaurants, as names like Ritter’s Inn, the Bavarian Wurst Haus and even the venerable John Ernst have all closed their doors. In fact, only two of the old-timers remain: the oldest, Mad
If you’re not from Waukesha, you’ll want to check MapQuest for directions, but it’s worth the ride. The Rochester Deli (143 E. Broadway, 262-522-9611), wedged within the labyrinth of downtown Waukesha across from the Freeman offices, is
Free Classifieds
Free Coupons
See Jim Gaffigan FREE
..Search Shepherd Express
