[Movie Review] I Am Legend

I will rate movies according to a scale of 1 to 4:

1. don't bother. it's a waste of your time.
2. put on your to-watch-when-i'm-free list (no need to watch except if you have nothing to do).
3. must-watch for movie lovers.
4. must-watch (now! on the big screen!) for everyone!

I Am Legend, starring Will Smith, is a 3. It's a 1 for those who do not like watching "horror" films. This isn't one, but... You might get nightmares because of this.

The movie poses a philosophical question: what if the long-awaited and much-needed cure for cancer or some other centuries-old-uncurable disease has been found, but has very serious consequences? In this case, it was almost magically found... And as we humans tend to not be able to do - predict the future - we do not know that it has a genocidal effect on the whole human race as we know it.

I guess that's one thing this movie should remind us. We might have little success as "predicting" the future, but we really can't. Not accurately at least.

And that's where the movie suddenly "injects" (pardon the pun) its magical healing serum: that about the existence of a higher being, "the" God, the one and only, the Almighty, who has everything perfectly planned, and who only really ultimately desires the salvation of all his creations, and most especially the human race. Some groups and authors (Christian groups and authors in particular) might say, that's what God does. He puts us under the burning sun, so that we can appreciate the cold. He puts us to carry heavy burdens, so that we can see that what we often times consider as "heavy" is only really pebbles for others. Apparently, what this movie might imply is that, there is a reason - God has a reason - for everything. The cure, the virus, the loss of loved ones, being helped by an unknown friend, death, and so on.

Sometimes, we might think, "we" have found the cure. But have "we" really? Or someone (i.e. God, nature) has had it for so long, and we just didn't pay attention. Should "we" take credit for something we didn't really create? Should we take credit for our "intelligences."

Wow, it is only now I see the philosophical undertones of this movie. While I was watching it, I was enjoying it. It is a movie after all. And now, I write these things...

I've seen such kind of philosophical undertones in other great movies - like Minority Report, The Matrix, etc. Oops, I give I Am Legend a rating of 4. It's a great movie, inside and out. Go watch it now!

[sub-label: CPC general, CPC movies]