Will Smith, Alice Braga and Charlie Tahan in the Francis Lawrence movie ‘I Am Legend’

Loosely based on the 1954 Richard Matheson novel I Am Legend, the science fiction horror movie I Am Legend (2007) as directed by Francis Lawrence captures our look today. Writing credits for the 2007 movie rest with Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman. The movie, set in New York City, New York, sees a measles-based virus built to cure cancer go post-apocalyptically wrong. A single man finds himself isolated in Manhattan to develop a cure while fighting virus-infected mutants bent on infecting anyone still healthy.

(From left, Will Smith as Robert Neville, Willow Smith as Marley Neville and Salli Richardson-Whitfield as Zoe Neville in the Francis Lawrence movie I Am Legend).

Set in 2012, three-years after an intended cancer cure has turned lethal, Will Smith portrayed United States Army virologist Robert Neville in I Am Legend. Neville follows a daily routine of seeking food and supplies, experimenting on rats to counteract the lethal disease, and waiting for infected survivors at the South Street Seaport, where a recurring recorded message directs people. We learn of a sad backstory for Neville’s wife and daughter, Zoe and Marley as portrayed by Salli Richardson-Whitfield and Willow Smith, through flashbacks of the evacuation of Manhattan before the current day of the film. That backstory adds depth to Neville’s attempts in the current day, along with his dog Samantha (Sam) as portrayed by Abbey and Kona, to cope with loneliness.

(From left, Will Smith as Robert Neville and Abbey as Samantha (Sam) in the Francis Lawrence movie I Am Legend).

The substance of the action for the movie begins when Robert and Sam pursue a deer into a darkened building, encountering infected people harmed by daylight called Darkseekers. Using a snare trap, Neville captures an infected female bonded to an infected male to take to Neville’s Washington Square Park home for experimentation, seemingly without success.

(From top, Will Smith as Robert Neville and Kona as Samantha (Sam) in the Francis Lawrence movie I Am Legend).

The next day, Robert is snared outside Grand Central Station and, waking near sunset to have an excruciating turn occur when he and Sam defend themselves against a pack of dogs. Neville acts out in grief, with Anna and a young boy named Ethan from Maryland, having come to South Street Seaport owing to Robert’s broadcast. The veracity of Anna and Ethan’s stories of travel through Maryland, Bethel, Vermont, and São Paulo, Brazil worries Robert Neville. At least two separate movie endings exist, with the alternate ending rather than the ending shown in movie theatres reportedly considered canonical for the sake of a movie slated to serve as a sequel to I Am Legend reportedly in production. Alice Braga and Charlie Tahan portrayed Anna and Ethan, respectively.

(From left, Alice Braga as Anna, Charlie Tahan as Ethan and Will Smith as Robert Neville in the Francis Lawrence move I Am Legend).

Other movies made based on the 1954 book I Am Legend have included The Last Man on Earth (1964) and The Omega Man (1971). I grant I Am Legend as directed by Francis Lawrence 3.5-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Saturday, May 11, 2024

Joaquin Phoenix and the film ‘Joker’

The film Joker (2019) works. Joaquin Phoenix starring in a gritty, physically demanding, emotional gut punch of a role as Arthur Fleck demands your attention. While given credible support in roles supporting him, make no mistake that Joaquin Phoenix as star of this character study surpasses the critical appreciation granted Christian Bale for Batman Begins (2005). While in the conversation, it is hard for me to say Phoenix’ Joker surpasses that of Heath Ledger from The Dark Knight (2008).

(Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck in the film Joker).

While thinking quite highly of the film Joker and the role Joaquin Phoenix played, this commentary is largely intended to keep the story of the experience to myself. Robert De Niro starring in a role reminiscent of Johnny Carson‘s The Tonight Show brings credibility to a sense of time and place in setting to a time of the maybe the 1970’s with the fictional city of Gotham standing in for New York City.

(Robert De Niro as Murray Franklin in the film Joker).

Arthur Fleck faced the gritty hardship of experiencing the difficult sides of a life that lacked stability, a future, and other elements that brought the Joker, as a character and villain, into conflict with the character Batman we know through the myth of the comic books, the multiple television series, and the multiple movie franchises. Arthur’s relationship with Penny Fleck, as portrayed by Frances Conroy, is given appropriate treatment in Joker.

(Frances Conroy as Penny Fleck, Arthur’s mother, in the film Joker).

Further, critical roles were given convincing voice in giving the role of Arthur Fleck an escalating series of events, each deepening Fleck into his culmination as sociopath Joker. Bringing Gotham with him in parallel offers a tangible sense of what guides the Batman we see on the reverse side of the coin. Those leveling criticism of this film as juvenile, bleak, clichéd, derivative or not angry enough miss a large point that this was a character study. Part of what made the slow burn of Quention Tarantino‘s film Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood (2019) film work made Joker also work.

(Joaquin Phoenix with director and co-screenwriter Todd Phillips from the film Joker).

Todd Phillips directed Joker. Scott Silver joined Phillips with screenwriting credits. My feeling of this movie, following my first viewing on Sunday of opening weekend, is that the film deserves the 4.0-stars on a scale of one-to-five that I am granting it. The audience score (91% favorable) rather than the score of critics (69% favorable) from Rotten Tomatoes on Sunday evening at roughly 10:30 PM Eastern Time, is more in line with my experience.

Matt – Wednesday, October 9, 2019