I Am Legend: Dr. Willy?

Trish and I braved the wind chill this evening to catch I Am Legend. Risking frostbite paid off and we were rewarded with an empty theater and choice seats. By the way, if you’ve never tried pretzel bites, do it! The “cheese” dip is so gross it’s good. I’m sure it’s all chemical, but who cares? It’s yummy. Anyway, I really enjoyed this movie, despite an almost too abrupt ending. Though I’d still recommend it, during the home bound subway analysis with Trish, some of the holes in the story's logic started to really annoy me. Don’t get me wrong, the special effects and post-apocalyptic New York City sets were stunning and the first two thirds of the movie definitely had my adrenaline pumping. Just don't expect anything too philosophically deep or intellectually stimulating. And why should you - or I, for that matter - as it's Will Smith, not Anthony Hopkins. The quasi-religious overtones thrown in at the end totally bogged down the plot and definitely seemed like an afterthought. I think they should have expanded on Dr. Neville’s day-to-day survival as well as creating more mutant confrontations. Yes, there were definitely some awesome nail-baiting moments, I have the gnarly cuticles to prove it, but I wanted more. I’m a vampire/zombie movie freak so I wanted to see more blood, damn it! Perhaps more survivors showing up so that we could lose a couple?

I was also prepared to be annoyed by Will Smith’s regular "everyman" shtick, but he gave a remarkably contained and nuanced performance until he got all “Will-y” in the last 20 minutes. He's also sportin' some major salt and pepper in the 'do. No matter, the gratuitious six-pack abs shot counterbalanced the gray quite nicely. Now for the problems -Spoiler alert - these are my few quibbles, which again, didn’t really affect my viewing pleasure but totally riled me up for the whole subway ride back to Astoria.

• Why did Dr. N have to chase deer? In all of NYC he couldn’t find a net or a trap in a deserted store? Why didn’t he set up a deer feeder (he was growing corn), lure them out and then just pick them off? There just seemed like an easier and safer way than speeding down Broadway in a car with a high-powered rifle.
  
  
• If the virus couldn’t survive the cold, then wouldn’t the areas in the far north and far south hemispheres be fine? What about winters in NYC? They’re pretty darn cold. I don’t understand how in three years a scouting plane from some unaffected territory hadn’t flown over “ground zero” to investigate.
  
  
• Dr. N as a scientist didn’t notice that the cold affected the mutants? Seems like it would be a pretty obvious observation to make.
  
  
• Could these zombies swim? Why didn’t he set out on a boat to avoid them?
  
  
• If all the bridges and tunnels into NYC were destroyed, how did Anna get into the city?
  
  
• Why did Dr. N have to sacrifice himself at the end? Couldn’t he have just waited for the very last minute, then pull the pin and jump behind the door? I mean, they make a big deal of Anna saying there’s plenty of room. They could’ve made it an itsy bitsy space that only held one person. At least then it would make more sense to sacrifice himself.
  
  
• If God told Anna to go to Vermont, did she just randomly drive around the state until she found the colony?
  
  
• If Dr. N knew how strong the mutants were, why didn’t he fortify the whole house and not just the windows and doors? Why didn’t he create other “secret hiding” areas in the floor, etc. for emergency cases? I mean, he had three years!
  
  
• Why are the mutants so hungry? There are herds of deer everywhere.

Again, I still recommend the movie and I was definitely never bored. But I wish they had at least tried to patch up some of the minor holes in the logic. At least they wrapped it up so that there couldn’t really be a sequel, at least not with Will Smith in it. In summary, cheap but fun thrills without substance, which is just fine for winter escapist fare. Now I just have to count the days until Sweeney!