Movie Review - I am Legend

It has been a while since I have reviewed anything. So, I will try to catch up on the books later, but I wanted to talk about some good things to watch. Since the writers are on strike TV is more depressing than exciting right now. There are really only two good shows on TV anyway. Heroes with their wonderful characters and rich imagery, and LOST which follows the same wonderful pattern. Heroes for example has people with names like Nathan, Peter, Noah, and Adam. Although in the last episode Nathan appeared to die, he dies serving as a prophet. Peter is very much the foundation, a rock so to speak. Adam may well be the first hero, although a hero who has fallen, and Noah is trying to save his family. The tension between a higher purpose and outright Darwinism is also fun to watch. LOST is very similar with characters with deep philosophical names like Russeau, Locke, and Hugo. In fact almost every name has significance in LOST and the real greatness of the show is the battle of these ideals. It also has some nice allusions like a man trying to return his love named Penelope, and Benjamin and Jacob serving as the Biblical allusions. It is a very good show. However, while LOST still has shows left, it does not appear that either will get a full season under their belt with the writers going on strike because of good old fashion greed. Thus, we must turn to movies.
And movies are seldom very good these days. Oddly the best are usually comic book remakes or stories from history. Original work in Hollywood usually turns out to be garbage. However, I am Legend starring Will Smith was a refreshing breath of fresh air. The acting was solid, not great but solid. More importantly the story was deep and fantastic. The lesson was a good moral, and the story was ripe with great biblical allusions. I don’t want to ruin too much of the story, but the disease that has ravaged mankind serves as a wonderful image for sin, and the story then becomes a search for salvation. It is a good story that does get explicit about God near the end. And surprisingly for a Hollywood movie it ends with a positive message about God. Not a great or deep message, but one that says He exists and He is working even in the darkest moments. I enjoyed the movie that was suspenseful, dramatic, exciting, and entertaining. I give it two thumbs up.