Reel Horror

I just watched Last Man on Earth last night and read I Am Legend a couple of weeks ago. I loved the book, but I was disappointed with the movie. I thought Last Man on Earth did a fantastic job of establishing the world in the first few frames, but overall, I thought the movie was lacking, mostly in regards to the character Robert Morgan. I will not say "aka- Robert Neville" because the characters are nothing alike. I will discuss that in a moment.

To say that Vincent Price's performance was good because he wasn't hamming it up as much as he did in some of his other movies, does not make it a good performance. It makes it good for Vincent Price. Yes, he did have pathos, as in the scene where he was watching old movies of his family, but where was the anger, that drove him to drink? Where was the disgust in his cowardess for not being able to commit suicide? Price, sadly had two emotions in this movie, pathos, as Pus emphasized, and scientific detachment. Not all of this was Price's fault. Much of it had to do with the script which is the very reason why Matheson did not care for the movie.

(The following is taken from an interview that I found online between Matheson and Paul Riordan - a Sci-Fi Station Contributing Author. You can find the whole interview at this linkhttp://www.scifistation.com/matheson/matheson_index.html)

MATHESON:
I don't think much of it (1964's THE LAST MAN ON EARTH) at all. It follows the book rather more closely than the other picture with Charlton Heston, but it does it very poorly.

(Vincent) Price (was) too particular a kind of actor to be appropriate as just a hard-drinking, family-man type. I have never had a translation of either my book or my screenplay, regarding I AM LEGEND.

I agree with Matheson. Robert's character is all wrong, and when something is a character study, like this book was, it can really throw it off. This is the reason why I believe they changed the title of the movie and Robert's name. He was not Robert Neville, he was Robert Morgan, that is all.

I said above that I would discuss character, and I want to tie this in with why, although not my first choice, Will Smith can be a great Robert Neville.
First of all, in order to envision him in the role, you have to use a little imagination and only think about the book. Like I, and even Matheson said, Price's character in Last Man on Earth is not accurate to the book.

Firstly- Neville is an ex soldier who was stationed in Panama. He is a fighter who owns at least two guns, and he knows how to use them. When he finds himself outside at sunset, he fights like hell to get back into his house, and furious at allowing this stupidity he comes back at the mindless vampires, guns blazing. We see the same when the new order comes to take him away. It's obvious Smith can do this, as Pus as pointed out, he has done it before in movies like Independence day where he was a soldier, and in Bad Boys and even Men in Black where he played a cop.

Secondly- Neville is a family man, in pain over the loss of his wife and child. I think Smith exudes father as he is a self-proclaimed proud father of three children. In his work, he has always worked well with children, such as Tatyana Ali in the Fresh Prince. We've also seen touches of pain in him, most recently in I, Robot. People laugh at me when I bring this movie up, but the character was hurting, he wanted to die, and I was impressed with Smith with a minor choice that he made in the movie. Getting ready for work that day he had a gun in his hand, and sitting on his bed he pointed the gun to his temple, but like Neville, he couldn't end it.

Thirdly- Neville is not a scientist, he doesn't even know how to use a microscope. His first try angers him so, he throws it against the wall and has to search for another. He is self taught, though he rebels against this side of himself because he does not want to follow in his father's, Fritz, footsteps. Actually Robert Morgan's character is more how Neville describes his father then he does himself. How will Smith do? He is a very bright man who was excepted at MIT, but decided to pass in order to find his own way in the world. I believe that the audience will easily be able to go along with him in the journey that he is learning this all for the first time.

Lastly- Obviously Will Smith is not a blonde haired blued eyed 35 year old from German descent, but he is nearly 6'5" like Neville and around the same age. At the end of the novel, Neville is also ripped from all of the hard work and vampire slaying, but he also has the wild look of a hermit, with a long beard and scraggly hair. Smith is in good shape, but some movie magic will need to happen to make him less clean cut.

So basically, I am on board with Smith. Smith is thought of as a wise cracking smart ass, but his performances made a turn after Ali. He began to listen more and make choices that involved his castmates. His acting choices were also more subtle, one could even say intimate. However, an actor is only one component of a movie. Hitchcock said actors are cattle, and once you look at how much editing can change a performance, you can see why. So, if the scriptwriter can trust that an audience does not mind having very little dialogue, and the director and editor work together to make this movie feel more arthouse then blockbuster, we are going to see some of Smith's best work, and then maybe Matheson will finally be happy to put his name on this one. I hope, I hope, I HOPE.