I Am Legend

I saw the movie, I Am Legend, yesterday. This movie is based off a 1954 novel of the same name by Richard Matheson and has been previously made into 2 other movies, 1964's The Last Man on Earth and 1971's The Omega Man.

The Movie follows Robert Neville, a US Army Corporal and virologist, who seems to be the last healthy and uninfected man in creepy and very empty New York City. We see Neville go about his day to day routine of finding food, researching a cure for the virus, and battling the remaining infected (and rather alien looking) inhabitants of New York. Through a series of flashbacks, we get filled in on how the virus started, the quarantine of Manhattan, and Neville's attempt to get his family out of the city.

I really enjoyed the movie although a few scenes were a heck of lot scarier than I would have liked, but the movie kept its pace well and kept me on the edge of my seat. A very good and suspenseful thriller. I've walked or driven many of those NYC streets they showed in the movie, so it was particularly unsettling to see them so empty and overgrown from non-use. Yikes!

I liken this movie to Castaway with Will Smith and his lovable dog Sam romping around NYC replacing Tom Hanks and Wilson the Volleyball romping around some isolated pacific island. And like Hanks, Will Smith did an amazing job with mostly only a dog to act against.