I Am Legend (Two-Disc Special Edition)
April 2008 Reviewed by: Josh Barber Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

I Am Legend marks the third time Richard Matheson's 1954 sci-fi novel of the same name has been adapted to film. The first was 1964's The Last Man on Earth, starring Vincent Price, and the second was Charlton Heston's The Omega Man in 1971. How does Will Smith's 2007 version compare? Well, if nothing else, the advance of technology has allowed director Francis Lawrence to better convey the idea of a depopulated world.

Will Smith is Robert Neville, apparently the last human on Earth after it has been scoured by a disease that started as a potential cure. His only companion is his dog, Sam, and together they've been living for nearly three years on the island of Manhattan. The hows and whys of this situation are revealed through flashbacks, but this is still Smith's movie to carry, and he does an admirable job conveying the loneliness inherent in the situation.

I Am Legend looks quite nice on this two-disc presentation. Considering that this is only Francis Lawrence's second feature film, he's done a wonderful job at capturing the stunning sight of an abandoned New York City. The CGI is integrated well, even in bright daylight, and the colors are solid, if somewhat muted to convey age and decay. We can clearly see to the top of those empty skyscrapers, and the black levels are at times oppressive -- but that's the way they should be. If the characters are supposed to be afraid of the dark, it wouldn't do for us to be able to see what's lurking within, would it?

It's strange and unsettling for a large city like New York to be so silent, but that doesn't mean this disc skimps on the audio. Yes, we hear the subtle rustling of grass as the wind blows through it, but the howls of the creatures inhabiting the island echo threateningly, and there is no shortage of loud cacophony as we near the end of the film. The dialogue can be quiet at times, but that's what happens when you're whispering.

The only real bonus feature is a set of four animated comics that gives us an idea of what's going on around the world. "Death as a Gift" takes us to Hong Kong to meet a girl considering her future, "Isolation" is a narrated piece set in a Colorado prison, "Sacrificing the Few for the Many" goes to Central America, and "Shelter" -- the longest segment -- gives us a unique view of the disease in New Delhi. The comics are well drawn and animated in an interesting style, and taken all together they run about 21 minutes.

Still, besides those, there are no special features on either disc. The standard features you'd expect do exist, but only as DVD-ROM material. Put the disc in an Internet-connected computer, and the features will pop up, but that's a bad way of doing things. If you want to watch the bonus features next year, or five years from now or even 20, will they still be there? Is there a guarantee that the site where the features are hosted will always be available, or will they be taken down at some future date? They're minor, but better to put them on the disc than expect us to access them from somewhere else. Very disappointing.

The second disc in the set is home to the confusingly named "Alternate Theatrical Cut," which only adds about five minutes of new footage, most of it in the last third of the film. There's no reason this needed to be put on its own, rather than as a viewing option on the main disc. With so few changes, and using branching video, it wouldn't have taken up a significant amount of space, and there could have been some actual special features on the second disc.

However, for such a short change in running time, the alternate version really does present a different experience. The events and tone are much different from the standard version's, and they maintain a bit more of the film's internal logic.

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