Review: ‘I Am Legend’ decent but an unnecessary remake

Directed by: Francis Lawrence

Starring: Will Smith, Alice Braga, Willow Smith

Rated: PG-13

The best science fiction stories always contain elements of morality tales. They deal not only with fiction and fantasy, but with facts – facts about and insights into the human condition.

Few modern writers understand this concept better than Richard Matheson.

In 1964, a film adaptation of Matheson’s novel “I Am Legend” appeared as the B-movie “The Last Man on Earth,” starring Vincent Price. Seven years later, it was remade as “The Omega Man,” with Charlton Heston.

No less a successful writer than Stephen King says “I Am Legend” is the book that has most influenced him as a writer.

Despite its lower budget, “Last Man on Earth” was more satisfying – and remained truer to Matheson’s novel – than “The Omega Man.” Many other movies, from George Romero’s original “Night of the Living Dead” (itself a classic) to “28 Days Later,” which was the first film in many years to add something new to the genre, owe more than a passing nod to Matheson.

Hollywood, when out of original ideas, always goes back to the well of the tried and true.

So it has again with a remake of all of the films based on Matheson’s novel, and the first one to be entitled “I Am Legend.”

The premise is the same as it ever was, except this time the demise of the human race comes about as a side effect of a cure for cancer.

The constant in all of these films is some part of “everyday life” going haywire. In “Last Man,” the back-story was developed more than it was in any of the subsequent films, and that helped the final product be all the more terrifying.

In the new film, Will Smith plays Robert Neville, a military doctor who has somehow (and conveniently for the film) managed to dodge the side effects of the cancer vaccine.

He finds himself alone with just his dog Sam in Manhattan, trying to nail down a cure for whatever has killed most of the human race and left the majority it didn’t kill as flesh-eating zombies.

There are still some “normal” humans around, even if Neville doesn’t know or even wants to admit.

For some reason, he keeps searching for a vaccine.

The plot plays out as it is: A paint-by-numbers post-apocalyptic zombie movie based on Matheson’s classic novel.

But to its credit, “I Am Legend” has a couple of big plusses in its corner.

First is Will Smith. Any actor who plays solo for 90 percent of a film has got to be engaging.

Few actors can pull that off. Tom Hanks did it in “Castaway,” a film I didn’t care for, but I admired Hanks’ performance.

Secondly, director Francis Lawrence has embraced the most innovative nuance to this kind of film since the very beginning: the speed of the zombies.

With “28 Days Later,” Danny Boyle was the first director to give us kinetic zombies.

While the somnambulate, undead flesh-eaters of old always evoke stunning, primordial terror, the new breed of the hyper-speed living dead provide quite an unnerving presence, which is the best thing about “I Am Legend.”

It’s a good film. But, had it not been made, there would be no loss.

There’s always “Last Man on Earth,” “Night of the Living Dead” and “28 Days Later.”

Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield freelance writer and musician. He can be reached at info@wunderlesound.com.