VES Screening: I Am Legend

The visual effects work in the film is astounding. All of the environments of Neville in an abandoned New York are pretty convincing, and the sound, as mentioned before, really puts you into that lonely environment. The supervisors talked about being on-set, and having people and signs of life that had to be removed in post. In addition to removing signs of life, they had to add more growth and vegetation and decay that would be apparent if humans were no longer on the earth. Twice as much work!

Smiths performance is great. He really conveys his loneliness to the audience, and at times you can sense him almost snapping out of sheer frustration at being the only one sane, and alone, in New York. Unfortunately, the creatures that come out into the world at dark don't make him alone any longer. Unlike previous versions of this film, The Omega Man (1971) and The Last Man on Earth (1964), the creatures don't talk. But they do convey a sense of emotion through their animation and motion capture, which the animation supervisor went over while describing the animation work in the film. In addition to the plethora of human creatures that they had to create, they also created infected and sane lab rats for Neville to experiment on, as well as infected dogs which, in a pivotal scene, wish you weren't in Neville's shoes.

I indirectly worked with directory Francis Lawrence on Constantine, and his goal for that film was to make the demons and environments real, and tangible. With I am Legend he had the same lofty goals, to which I think he succeeded. Originally the plan was to have the infected portrayed by stunt actors, of which there is a copious list at the end credits! Through post-production however, the team was tasked with making fully CG infected people. Any shot of an infected human in Nevilles present time is CG, including closeups. After seeing the amazingly realistic human baby in Children of Men, I believe it.

A year or two ago, when other studios were bidding for this project, I can across an early script that was on the net. If you had typed in "I am Legend" into Google and hit I'm feeling lucky, you would get transported to the current screenplay. After reading that, I was hesitant (because it sucked). This film version is nothing like that written screenplay, and it's for the better.

Overall, I'd give the film a 9/10, and the visual effects an 8/10. While the environments and infected dogs, rats and people were amazing, they were still missing something, and that was environmental integration. While New York looked amazing in its destruction, it still looked too clean. There wasn't enough detritious in the air, or particulate matter, or blowing dust. It was sterile, even though it looked dirty.

What are your thoughts on the film, if you've seen it? Did it meet your expectations?