I Am Legend Film Analysis
Jessica Wang
English 106
10 April 2008
Robert Neville is the last normal living man in the world. The all of New York City is in ruins. How long can Robert Neville survive alone with his dog in a world of vampires and how long do you think you can live in this case?
The film, I Am Legend is a post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Will Smith. It was released on December 14th, 2007. This film is actually the third adaptation of Richard Matheson’s novel of the same name from 1954. Smith plays virologist Robert Neville, who lives in New York City in 2012, which is inhabited by animalistic victims of the virus. He is immune to a vicious man-made virus originally created to cure cancer and works to create a cure in Manhattan.
As we can see, throughout the whole movie, Dr. Neville is trying to figure out the cure for the virus and fighting against those animalistic victims himself, but what makes all this happen? It is human beings ourselves. Human beings are too careless and have not realized the danger of the new advanced technologies. In this movie, instead of controlling the technologies, the whole world is destroyed by the virus called KV which is created to cure cancer.
At the beginning of the film, Dr. Krippin is interviewed on the TV news about their achievements on discovering the cure for cancers. “Yes, we have.” at the end of the interview, Dr. Krippin confirmed that they have found the solutions for cancers and cured all the people that have taken the medicines. However, people, even those scientists who create the medicines, are not aware of the danger of the new medicine until that moment. Through the interview, it gives us proof that it is human beings ourselves that bring the new virus to the world, destroying the whole world to ruins as later we see in the film.
There is another scene in the film: when Dr. Neville is saved by Anna (Alice Braga) and is told that there is a safe zone in which all the normal
English 106
10 April 2008
Robert Neville is the last normal living man in the world. The all of New York City is in ruins. How long can Robert Neville survive alone with his dog in a world of vampires and how long do you think you can live in this case?
The film, I Am Legend is a post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Will Smith. It was released on December 14th, 2007. This film is actually the third adaptation of Richard Matheson’s novel of the same name from 1954. Smith plays virologist Robert Neville, who lives in New York City in 2012, which is inhabited by animalistic victims of the virus. He is immune to a vicious man-made virus originally created to cure cancer and works to create a cure in Manhattan.
As we can see, throughout the whole movie, Dr. Neville is trying to figure out the cure for the virus and fighting against those animalistic victims himself, but what makes all this happen? It is human beings ourselves. Human beings are too careless and have not realized the danger of the new advanced technologies. In this movie, instead of controlling the technologies, the whole world is destroyed by the virus called KV which is created to cure cancer.
At the beginning of the film, Dr. Krippin is interviewed on the TV news about their achievements on discovering the cure for cancers. “Yes, we have.” at the end of the interview, Dr. Krippin confirmed that they have found the solutions for cancers and cured all the people that have taken the medicines. However, people, even those scientists who create the medicines, are not aware of the danger of the new medicine until that moment. Through the interview, it gives us proof that it is human beings ourselves that bring the new virus to the world, destroying the whole world to ruins as later we see in the film.
There is another scene in the film: when Dr. Neville is saved by Anna (Alice Braga) and is told that there is a safe zone in which all the normal
Cited: The film: I Am Legend, Dir. Francis Lawrence. Will Smith, 2007, DVD, 2007 Crichton. Michael, Timeline, United States: Knopf, November 1999, I Am Legend, Richard Matheson, 1954, Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia “I Am Legend‘s Original Ending----This is amazing”, March 5th, 2008, Firstshowing.net, April 2th, 2009 “Movie review I Am Legend”, December, 14th, 2007, movies.nytimes.com, April 2th, 2009 “I Am Legend, Starring Will Smith - Spiritual Themes”, ezinearticles.com, Patrick Roberts, April 2th, 2009 “I Am Legend-Interview w/Director Francis Lawrence”, youtube.com, April 2th, 2009 “I Am Legend, Richard Matheson”, April 2th, 2009, books.google.com http://books.google.com/books?id=NLeGJPHd0g4C