I am Legend... I won't kill it

Geez! Lately this looks like a movie blog... anyways is that time of the year in which theaters protect movie goers from the imaginary cold... where did my winter go?

I had just stepped off the Christmas Dinner Party and was happy as hell with my bonus as I said before and to make my night even better Izzy and Michelle call me to go to the movies.

In an unexpected move, Izzy called for I am Legend, and even if I didn't wanna, I would because Izzy hardly ever calls for vamps/suspense. Ahhhh... but he has a nose for action, and this was an action movie.

The general prediction is that this is the one for which America has been saving hard earned dollars because there was a looooong line to wait, about 20 minutes in queue. But then, Tampa midnight breed love their vampires...and Will Smith.

I must confess the movie surprised me. I was waiting for it to start with a bang and never stop, but it actually managed to keep the initial pace of Matheson's book, even with the change of scenario. In fact there were a couple of scenes that only New York city could provide that proved to be real effective in the way of creepiness and I'll get to them later.

The first half or so of the movie is pure Matheson and Smith plays it brilliantly. He is a man that lives in a world in which all books have been written, all movies filmed, all songs composed and he tries to avoid this by building a strong routine of survival. People will inevitably laugh at some of his devices at first, but gradually, as the big picture of total isolation unrolls, if there is any laughter, it will be of the nervous kind, followed by a perhaps I would have done the same thing kind of shit, that we know we wouldn't have done anyway.

He lives through his day hoping to sleep at night without nightmares, and there are nightmares every night, they come as flash backs and sometimes they wake him up realizing that is not what has happened what torments him, but what might happen. The nights in New York are filled with echoes of what once were human voices, enough to drive anyone crazy.

Smith manages to capture the agony of a man that has no human beings around him to test his sense of sanity and it works pretty well. Until someone decides to push the action button and it all makes a very fast left turn in Albuquerque. If you read the book, you will see it coming a million miles away, if you didn't read the book, you'll buy it, because the introduced character have a meaning towards their end.

Worse things have been done with adaptations, and as I said this one translates pretty good to the screen as an action movie. In fact I liked it a lot better than 30 Days of Night...however the vampire fan in me missed the whole quiet tension and drama that gave the movie and the novel it's title: a world in which nightmare creatures became the norm and the one last human being was considered a first class monster of legend. I miss the whole inverted hunter/ prey game that made this novella unique at it's time.

There is a couple of good scares as I said, courtesy of NYC. Those of you who have been there know that the structures in Manhattan work basically as a man made canyon and the wind can do wonders... the way those empty buildings worked the noise, or lack there of, was creepy enough for me to never complain about the sounds of the city again, also there is a scene with a deer... you'll know what I'm talking about when you see it... it is classic suspense... vampires are dumbed down as always happens and in this case we are lacking the half breeds of Matheson's book... once again, this is not the movie that will single handedly bring forth vampires again, but is a hell of an action film carried by none other than Will Smith... so enjoy!!!

"I can fix this. Let me save you. I can save you; I can save everybody."- Will Smith as Robert Neville, playing the whole I will save the world with nobility and all.