I, Legend by Angel

As long as nerds read books and steves make movies, someone is going to be unhappy with the faithfulness of movie adaptations to their source material. Fortunately for the movie-makers, those people typically shun confrontation and prefer Angel reruns to power-lifting. Still, there isn’t an actor who conjures more fear in a purist’s heart than Will Smith. If you were confused how Isaac Asimov’s hard sci-fi collection of placid short stories became the action romp I, Robot, you know what I mean. If, on the other hand, you are wondering who Isaac Asimov is, then you’re probably excited to see that Akiva Goldsman co-wrote Smith’s next big movie, I Am Legend.

“Gold”sman’s words have powered films such as Batman Forever and Batman & Robin (aka the Batman so good that Warner Brothers decided nothing could ever top it and that they should just start a reset the franchise), The Da Vinci Code, and of course I, Robot. Feeling he hadn’t enriched us enough with his writing, Akiva teamed up with Mike Protosevich to adapt I Am Legend not from the eponymous novel by Richard Matheson, but rather from a 1971 movie based on Matheson’s book, The Omega Man. Yes, it’s a screenplay based on a screenplay based on a book. They claim that it’s based on the script of The Omega Man and not the movie, so they’re not calling it what it is, a remake. Now I am explaining this, because it would be unethical to let Matheson fans enter the theater not knowing I Am Legend’s adaptation was about as faithful as Kobe Bryant in a seedy massage parlor.

However the source material has changed in its translation, the ad campaign for I Am Legend does do an excellent job of building mystery, while highlighting how visually stunning the movie is going to be; it could be 90 minutes of Big Willy alternating ass to mouth with Richard “the Octogenarian” Matheson, and I would probably still pay admission. Smith must also be given credit for trying to secure Guillermo Del Toro as the director (he declined). Movie-goers have otherwise been fortunate in I Am Legend’s lengthy production process, the project having slipped through the fingers of many inept hands. Imagine a universe where our fates diverged in the 90s: while Shadie enjoyed Ridley Scott’s mysterious directorial absence, some poor saps were sitting through his awful I Am Legend starring the miscast Arnold Swartzenegger. Again in 2003, the public almost receives Michael Bay’s I Am Legend starring Will Smith, but instead gets Bad Boys 2. Well, actually I am not sure we came out any richer on that bargain, but the bottom line is that I Am Legend has had so many opportunities to suck that it is virtually improbable that it will be a bad film.