I Am Legend: Two-Disc Special Edition Directed By: Francis Lawrence Starring: Will Smith, Alice Brage, Dash Mihok Studio: Warner Brothers Year: 2007 Rated: PG-13 Film Length: Theatrical - 100 minutes; Alternate - 104 minutes Aspect Ratio: 2.4:1 Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, English SDH Release Date: March 18, 2008 [quote] [/quote] The Film I Am Legend is the third cinematic adaptation of Richard Matheson's 1954 novel of the same name. Preceded by the low budget 1964 Vincent Price film "The Last Man on Earth" and the 1971 Charlton Heston vehicle "The Omega Man", this latest adaptation is the first one to use the title of the original novel, but it still takes great liberties with the plot. The basic premise remains intriguing, though, and it is easy to see why filmmakers have been drawn to it multiple times. Will Smith plays Dr. Robert Neville, a military scientist and a survivor of a viral pandemic initiated by a failed attempt at creating a cancer vaccine. He is apparently the only living man on the island of Manhattan. His days are filled with a disciplined routine of scavenging for food, working on a vaccine based on his own blood's immunity, and trying to contact any other survivors with only his dog as a companion. His nights are spent holed up in his Greenwich Village home in order to avoid marauding bands of "Dark Seekers". The Dark Seekers are a fraction of the humans who have been infected by the virus who lived but were mutated into bloodthirsty bad CGI effects with an aversion to ultraviolet radiation that prevents them from venturing outside during daylight hours. Smith gives perhaps the best performance of his career, and absolutely carries the first two-thirds of the film. He immerses himself in the character of Neville and is completely convincing in scenes with only limited amounts of dialog. To be completely honest, I did not know he had a performance like this in him, and did not expect so much from a genre film. In a few scenes, he exchanges dialog with mannequins and even makes them look good. Aside from its lead actor, the film's other strength is the combination of production design and special effects used to create an abandoned Manhattan. There is something downright eerie about seeing familiar Manhattan sites completely devoid of people, and the filmmakers clearly put a lot of though and effort into realizing this cinematically. Another impressive sequence happens in flashback as we see the evacuation and sealing off of Manhattan early during the outbreak of the viral pandemic. As spectacularly rendered as the film's vision of a post-apocalyptic Manhattan is, the special effects employed to render the Dark Seekers are a big disappointment. They look like the CGI demons that they are and never seem to belong in the same reality as the rest of the film frame in which they appear. The film would likely have worked better with actors in standard zombie-style make-up and cost less, too. I usually have a fair amount of tolerance for CGI beasties, but these are the most jarringly wrong looking movie creatures I have seen since Blarp from the 1998 Lost in Space adaptation. Whenever the Dark Seekers are lurking in the shadows, they are menacing and the film is working. As soon as you see them, the scene falls apart. Setting that gripe aside, the film's final third is not quite as strong as what comes before it. The filmmakers devise a completely different ending than Matheson's novel and either do not try to or just plain fail to capture the fatalistic spirit of the original story. What comes before that is strong enough that I still enjoyed the overall experience despite a whiff of disappointment. Did I say they devised a completely different ending than the novel? In fact, they devised two completely different endings than the novel. The second disc of this Two-Disc Special Edition includes an alternate version of the film that runs four minutes longer than the widely released theatrical cut. Billed somewhat prosaically as an "Alternate Theatrical Version", the only significant difference I noticed was the ending which takes things in a whole different direction. Without giving too much away, the widely released ending is more heroic whereas the alternate version has more of a cynical twist and also seems to be better foreshadowed by the events that preceded it. I did not have a strong preference for either one. The Video The 16:9 enhanced 2.4:1 transfer is outstanding. It is among the best video presentations I have seen for a new theatrical release since I began reviewing Warner titles for the HTF. There are occasionally very minor video and compression artifacts that remind one that they are watching SD DVD, but other than that, color, detail, and contrast/shadow detail are all very good. The theatrical version has a slight edge over the Alternate Theatrical Version, but both are strong presentations. The Audio The English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is a very strong representation of an effective theatrical mix. Long periods of silence underlined by low level ambient sounds are punctuated by extremely active and bombastic passages that employ all 5.1 channels aggressively. The James Newton Howard score is also employed sparely and effectively, emphasizing the isolation of the Neville character. The Extras Extras available via conventional DVD menus consist of the Alternate Theatrical Version on the second disc and a series of four Animated Comics on the first disc. They are presented in 16:9 video with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. As their description suggests, they appear to be a series of comic panels to which very limited animation touches are applied. Each tells a brief story about how the virus depicted in the film impacts peoples in different places around the globe. The titles, locations, and running times are as follows:- Death as a Gift (Hong Kong, China) 3:01
- Isolation (Colorado, USA) 6:35
- Sacrificing the Few for the Many (Central America) 3:27
- Shelter (New Delhi, India) 8:37
- Closing Down Fifth Avenue (5:48)
- The Creatures Break In (4:54)
- The Story (2:58)
- The Joy Ride Jump (2:22)
- Will in the Driver's Seat (1:46)
- Canine Co-Star (3:26)
- NYC Gone Back to Nature (1:49)
- Robert Neville's Psychology (2:03)
- Quiet Imagination (2:15)
- Evacuation, Part 1: Family Convoy (1:05)
- Neville's Weapons (2:19)
- That Scary Place Inside All of Us (1:53)
- Shooting the Intrepid (1:35)
- Building the Pier (2:31)
- Evacuation, Part 2: Military Cooperation (2:02)
- Will's Physical Training (2:18)
- Creating the Dark Seekers (2:44)
- Evacuation, Part 3: Choppers (1:42)
- The Conflicts of Isolation (2:07)
- Trusting the Unknown (2:19)
- Will Smith in Action (1:44)
- Lost Boys: The Tribe DTV Trailer (1:27)
- Warner Blu-Ray and HD DVD Promo (2:05 - 16:9 Video)
- The Dark Knight Theatrical Trailer (2:09)
- Speed Racer Theatrical Trailer (2:01)
- Appleseed: Ex Machina DVD Trailer (2:04)
- Justice League: New Frontier DTV Trailer (1:23)
