Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10596 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-04-21
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Formats: Box set, PAL, Special Edition, DTS Surround Sound, Subtitled
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 96 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Will Smith stars in the third adaptation of Richard Matheson’s classic science-fiction novel about a lone human survivor in a post-apocalyptic world dominated by vampires. This new version somewhat alters Matheson’s central hook, i.e., the startling idea that an ordinary man, Robert Neville, spends his days roaming a desolated city and his nights in a house sealed off from longtime neighbours who have become bloodsucking fiends. In the new film, Smith’s Neville is a military scientist charged with finding a cure for a virus that turns people into crazed, hairless, flesh-eating zombies. Failing to complete his work in time, and after enduring a personal tragedy, Neville finds himself alone in Manhattan, his natural immunity to the virus keeping him alive. With an expressive German shepherd, his only companion, Neville is a hunter-gatherer in sunlight, hiding from the mutants at night in his Washington Square town house and methodically conducting experiments in his ceaseless quest to conquer the disease.

The film’s first half almost suggests that I Am Legend could be one of the finest movies of 2007. Director Francis Lawrence’s extraordinary, computer-generated images of a decaying New York City reveal weeds growing through the cracks of familiar streets that are also overrun by deer and prowled by lions. It’s impossible not to be fascinated by such a realistically altered cityscape, reverting to a natural environment, through which Smith moves with a weirdly enviable freedom, offset by his wariness over whatever is lurking in the dark of bank vaults and parking garages. Lawrence and screenwriters Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman wisely build suspense by withholding images of the monsters until a peak scene of horror well into the story. It must be said, however, that the computer-enhanced creatures don’t look half as interesting as they might have had the filmmakers adhered more to Matheson’s vampire-nightmare vision. I Am Legend is ultimately noteworthy for Smith’s remarkable performance as a man so lonely he talks to mannequins in the shops he frequents. The film’s latter half goes too far in portraying Smith’s Neville as a pitiable man with a messianic mission, but this lapse into pathos does nothing to take away from the visual and dramatic accomplishments of its first hour. --Tom Keogh

DVD Description
I Am Legend stars Will Smith (Men in Black)as Robert Neville, a brilliant scientist. When a man-made virus can't be contained, Neville finds himself the last human survivor in New York City and potentially the world. For three years he faithfully sends out daily radio messages, desperate to find other survivors. But he is not alone... Mutant victims of the plague (The Infected) lurk in the shadows, waiting to catch Neville out. As perhaps Earth's last hope for mankind, Neville is driven only by the desire to somehow reverse the effects of the virus before it's too late...

Special Features
A huge host of extra content including:

Disc 1: - Original release of the film - 4 awesome animated comics: Death As A Gift, Isolation, Sacrificing The Few For The Many, and Shelter.

Disc 2: - An alternative ending - A Cautionary Tale: The Science of I Am Legend - DVD-ROM PC Weblink to intense bonus material including extensive behind-the-scenes extras.

Still from I Am Legend

Will Smith

Will Smith

Amazon.com
Over 90mins of extra content including:
- An alternative ending
- A host of featurettes, including: A Cautionary Tale – The Science behind I Am Legend, and The Making of I Am Legend

Customer Reviews

Good intentions, but doesnt live up to the book!
When I first heard of another movie adaptaion of the "I am Legend" book I had high hopes. Will Smith has made some excellent movies throughout his career (Wild, Wild West aside!), and is a likeable leading man. All the early preview reviews seemed positive, so it was with some disapointment that I left the cinema shaking my head upon its release. The reasons for my consternation... the ending! I fully realises why Hollywood makes changes to some adaptations of books, but in this case it seems an absolute travesty to change it so massively. The book contains what I hold to be one of the best gut wrenching endings ever written. I dont totally hate this movie, it has some nice touches, but to so fundementally change the stories ending I'm suprised they were allowed to call it "I am Legend". **Update 21/5/08** The "alternative" ending show cased on this version of the DVD release doesnt improve things for me... its an ending further removed from the book than the one on the theatrical release version! In closing, its an okay movie, but I implore you.... PLEASE PLEASE READ THE BOOK!

fourth time lucky?
Ok, let's talk about the film first. I will admit first of all that I love the book this is based on, so my expectations were coloured by that. The story involves a man called robert neville who is the last man alive after a plague has turned people into vampire style creatures. He fights to stay alive whilst trying to find a cure for the plague.

Previously filmed in 1962 as the last man on earth starring vincent price, and in the 70's with charlton heston as the omega man. The first gets awful reviews and I've not seen it. the second is an okay action film but not a patch on the book. and it was due to be filmed in the 90's by ridley scott with arnold schwarzenegger in the lead but that version was cancelled when the budget got too high.

this latest version stars will smith and is directed by frances lawrence.

Good points:

stunning scenes of a deserted city

will smith turns in a good performance, foregoing his usual cool dude persona to show a guy suffering from crippling loneliness. this really comes out well in some scenes.

He has a lovely alsatian dog.

When seen in the dark, the vampire creatures are absolutely terrifying.

not so good points:

changes to the book. neville was an ordinary man there. making him a tough soldier and skilled virologist here rathers goes against the point of him being an ordinary man.

cgi. used for some of the wild animals in the city and the vampires it's very good cgi but it's far too obviously cgi. it doesn't convince [except in the dark]

the last quarter of the film. forgets a few subplots it's been setting up and goes off in a completely different direction that rather spoils the point of things.

The ending, though....is not bad. even though it's a bit too hollywood for my tastes.

However:

everyone else I know who saw the movie has never read the book. and they loved the film! so it may be worth judging for yourselves.

Does the dog survive, you ask? let's just say this is a not a movie to see if you want to come out smiling.

So, not bad but still not quite the film the book deserves. hope it gets done again. and right. and that it sticks to the ending of the book, which goes with the title far better.

This two disc edition comes with a nice lenticular cover. it has dozens upon dozens of language tracks and subtitles in lots of langugages. but that's only on disc one. that disc contains the movie, with direct scene access, and four animated comics. all these are stories set elsewhere in the world as the plague starts. The first is a bit too short for it's own good, the second starts well but rushes it's ending, the third is a tad inconsequential, but the fourth is an excellent horror story. All the animation in this is paintings being made to move rather than traditional animation. it's pretty effective.

the second disc has a copy of the film that you can legally download to a pc and keep forever. however it has a different ending to the cinema version. This ending starts well, being more in keeping with the book, but then rather spoils the point. but again, that's all a matter of opinion.

And fifty minutes worth of production features on the making of the film aren't even on this disc. there's just a weblink which allows you to access them on the internet. Dropped points for that as I'd prefer them to be on the disc.

but the one documentary on the second disc, about viruses, has to be seen. it's superb. running for almost twenty minutes it's fascinating, you'll learn a lot from it about viruses and how they work [such as how hiv got started] and it's downright scary as well!

an okay film. a dvd package that could be slightly better.

Playing and preaching Bob Marley doth not a serious movie make.
The equation of a director of Britney Spears/Jennifer Lopez music videos + the saviour of the world from Independence Day was always going to give flickering noisy horde-fighting explosive tripe.

There's 10 better zombie movies on the shelves (just fast forward to get the same effect) and there's dozens of 'cool guy saves the world' movies but in them the central actor doesn't get out-performed by a dog. Will Smith does not even come close to being able to carry a movie on his own the way Tom Hanks did in Cast Away. When he starts trying to get a manequin to talk to him it's one of the most winceable scenes imaginable and you don't know whether a laugh track is going to kick in or whether an alien/robot/zombie is going to smash through the window to save him from the folly of his ridiculous acting.

The plot, acting, and monsters end up being a seriously annoying distraction to the very well done backdrop of ghost town New York...as soon as the monsters get introduced the rest is pretty much predictable popcorn selling drivel.

Avoid like the plague.