I Am Legend

Directed by Francis Lawrence
Released in 2007
Genre: Horror, Sci-fi, Drama
Themes: Death, apocalypse, science, disease, family, love

Performance: I want to immediately address that the dog was very well trained. When I was making my own film, I thought about including my dog but it was much too difficult to get her to do what I needed for the scene and so I must admire the trainers of the dog and the dog itself, who was technically an Actor. Will Smith also portrayed his character, Robert Neville, extremely realistically. You could feel the loneliness and effects the continuous solitude were having on him psychologically. Additionally, this just served to strengthen the relationship between Robert and Samantha more. Samantha was Robert's only remaining loved one and only connection to his past, peaceful life. With her gone (which was a very emotional scene), his psyche started to fracture more and more to the point where he essentially attempted suicide and Will Smith showed us these changes subtly but expertly. His awkwardness towards the first humans he'd met in months, possibly years also seemed quite genuine and gave us insight into how long it'd actually been since Robert interacted with real humans.

Sound: Although he never appeared as a character, Bob Marley played a very influential role in this movie. Robert listened to and sung his music repeatedly throughout the music, generally 'Three Little Birds' which not only served to contrast the horrible scenario, an excellent use of juxtaposition, but he also served as a plot point when Robert had a realization, spurred by Bob Marley's words. One of the characters, Robert's daughter, was also named after him. The music isn't the only excellent use of sound in the movie. The sound effects put in place to serve as the 'Darkseekers' noises were chilling. The high shrills, roars and groans sounded absolutely inhuman; perfect for the film's reoccurring plot point of the 'Darkseekers' being monstrous, but surprising us at the end with humane compassion and love. Without the sound effects being so malicious and barbaric, it's likely the audience may not have been as believing of the 'Darkseekers' vicious and mindless behavior, leading to a much less satisfying ending where the audience wouldn't be nearly as shocked and thrilled by the seemingly mad decision of Robert.

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