Matt Margolis

Yesterday, I saw I Am Legend, starring Will Smith. My recently renewed interest in science fiction was apparently enough to cause me to see the movie on opening weekend. I had read a negative review a few days earlier that largely focused on what the reviewer said was unconvincing special effects. However, my co-author Mark Noonan spoke very highly of the movie, saying it was the best movie he’d seen in 10 years, and that it was an Oscar-worthy performance by Will Smith. I would say, at the least, he deserves to be nominated.

I can say I don’t think it was the best movie I’d seen in 10 years, but it certainly was a good performance by Will Smith, who has come a long way since his days as the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

I have not read the original story by Richard Matheson, though I suspect I will get it soon. (I’ve put it on my wish list if any of my readers wants to get it for me) I’m actually really interested in the book now, as well the previous film adaptation, The Omega Man, starring Charlton Heston.

Anyway, I wasn’t totally put off by the special effects and I also thought the movie didn’t simply degenerate into a typical action movie. Will Smith largely has to carry the movie by himself and the action that does take place fits the story, and doesn’t seem arbitrary like in the latter two installments of The Matrix Trilogy, (where there was hardly a scene that didn’t have a special effects-infused fight sequence) or even in Live Free or Die Hard (with some ridiculously unrealistic scenes, including one involving a fighter jet) so I would say there was a good balance of true acting and action.

I Am Legend definitely won me over. You can’t help wondering what that kind of isolation must feel like, and I think if anything, the movie should have spent more time on that, and less on the zombies. I imagine the DVD release will have plenty of bonus features, including deleted scenes, that will be worth seeing.