Eng 225 Film

When producing a horror movie we tend to think of an indivual going around killing or chopping people up into small peices. Some horror movies might have a big scary monster that goes around and terrorize people in there neighborhood. This is the norm for most horror movies to give the storyline that scarey factor. The movie "I am Legend" was a horror movie that took a different aprroach from your normal horror movies. It was still scarey but only had that horror effect when the time was right or when the monster was approached. In this paper I will analisy the movie "I am Legend" to better understand the overall storyline and its plot. The movie "I am Legend" had a non-linear narrative structure. A non-linear film "does not move from one event to the next in chronological order but moves from the present to the furture to the past, and so on, with no regard for chronological order" (Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. 2011). In this movie it starts with Neville remembering his past daily life as a military scientists. He was trying to find the cure for a virus that was spreading across the world. Then the movie goes into his present life after the virus has killed everybody and leaving him alone in the city of New York. In the movie "I am Legend" Will Smith was the star actor who played the role of Robert Neville. I think Will Smith is not only a star actor but also a wild card actor who can play a wide variety of characters equally well without becoming typecast (Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. 2011). Will Smith did a good job of protraying the life of a man who was left alone in the world with mutants and his only companion Sam a German Shepard. These mutants were results of a man-made virus that killed off most of the population. He was able to survive and not be affected by this virus because he was immune to the virus. In this movie Robert's family wife Zoe (Salli Richardson) and son Marley (Willow Smith) were killed in helicopter crashed caused by the mutants, so Robert is haunted by the memories of his family being killed. The cinematography was created by Andrew Lesnie. He did an outstanding job of creating a realistic abandoned New York city with cars scatterd through out the city with no movement. In the scene were the helicopter crashes the special effects made it feel real, all the special effects in this movie were created using computer-generated imagery. CGI was also used to give the realistic effect of the planes shooting missles into the bridge blowing it up. Most of the colors used in this movie went relatively well with the scenes. The darker colors were used to set the mood for scarey scenes. For example has Robert enters the dark building looking for Sam that scene was shot totally in the dark with him using a flash light. The flash light was a very good tool to use to highlight the mutants feeding in the dark. The editor Wayne Wahram used the cut transitioning method to edit the movie "I am Legend". "After the news report is shown in the opening sequence, the editing is generally slow cut and transitioned this is to build up the atmosphere and impend on the audience a sense of solitude and abandonment. The camera shots then turn into shaky footage when shown from inside the car, this is in order to a sense of realism to the film.v When the deers run in front of Robert Neville’s car the editing is sped up and quick cut transitions are now used- this is to add suspense and tension as in principal it is a conventional chase scene" (slideshare.net). In this movie "I am legend" all three categoreis of sound were used. Dialogue, voice-over, and sound effects. Dialogue is when one character talks to one another. When Robert wakes up from the night he tried to commit suicide he awoke to having Anna (Alice Braga) in his house cooking breakfast. Once he comes to terms of what just happened he began to talk to her about how did she find him. He was under the impression he was the only sole survior and she expalined to Robert that was other people in a different part of the country. In the beggining of the movie voice-over was used because Robert narrated this first scene he was explaining about his life. Sound effects was used through out the movie to enhance the over all different scenes. You can hear deers running birds chirping when Robert goes out on a patrol threw the city and see the deers. In the final scene sound effect was used to create the big explosion as he kills himself and some of the mutants. The movie "I am Legend received three stars out of three from Robert Ebert. The pros for this movie was the special effects. The way the special effects were used help enhance the thrill and suspence and gave you a good scary factor. The cons for this movie was its story line its hard to believe that if the bridge was blew up from the start of the movie that Anna some how was able to get to Robert by car. Also the scene where Robert starts off sleeping in the tub and some how ends up in his bed. I think when the movie was edited they used the wrong cut to reestablish the next seen or used a jump cut. In conclusion I think the movie "I am Legend was a very simple horror/suspence movie that was entertaining at momments and boring others. The storyline could have been enhanced to give the horror film more horror and thrills.

Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2011). Film: From Watching to Seeing. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. http://www.slideshare.net/MrFujji/i-am-legend-analysis-15649409 http://www.thefreshfilms.com/Movies/i_am_legend_(2007).htm http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/i-am-legend-2007