I am Legend

Synopsis: 

Robert Neville is the last living man on Earth... but he is not alone. Every other man, woman and child on the planet has become a vampire, and they are hungry for Neville's blood.

By day he is the hunter, stalking the undead through the ruins of civilisation. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for the dawn.

How long can one man survive like this?

My thoughts:

Wow. What the hell was Hollywood thinking? Never has the phrase "The Book was Better." ever been more significant than in the case of Richard Matheson's I am Legend.

The immortal last words of the iconic novel are a hideous reminder of the lack of respect or sympathy the Hollywood giants have for original works of great literature. 

Hollywood enthusiasts who took everything but the main character, situation, heck even the whole plot, leaving us with a film that grasps at scraps so miniscule, it is a mockery that they even placed the words 'Based on the novel by..." at the opening credits.

The story follows Robert Neville. A noticeably insignificant man in the light of a terrible circumstance. He is neither a scientist nor a soldier, only a humble family man who drowns his sorrows in drink and rage at the loss and haunting memory of his wife and child.

The lone righteous hero takes up the mantle to slowly destroy the menace that has taken his family, his neighbors, nay the country and possibly world he lives in away from him. He strives to live in this world, unbearable though it may seem, frequently relinquishing his will power to blind drunken rage and overwhelming grief and almost giving himself over to the raucous vampires who frequent his house each and very night, here's looking at you Ben Cortman.

Despite his noticeable flaws, his human integrity is astonishing. Pushed to his absolute limits he sets new barriers for himself. Striving to isolate the cause of the deterioration of society, how it was distributed, what it could be, myth or scientific fact, upon establishing the latter, despite his lack of biological expertise he rises to his own internal need to know although he understands that the answer will bring him no closer to overcoming the loss of most of the planet.

Driven down again into a dark depression when he admits defeat at not being able to fight against this new found contagion, he wanders hopelessly, revisiting old haunts and dispatching more vampiric citizens dormant in their beds until he crosses paths with an injured dog who not stupidly, scampers away sharply.

The isolation that the contagion has brought is enhanced in this pinnacle chapter in which the dog takes over almost every aspect of his life, right down to using his own food supplies to coax the dog into his trust.

After days, weeks of building this bond, even striving to find a bed and actual dog food rather than using his own prime steaks, he eventually earns a reasonable enough trust to bring the dog into his home.

Though the victory is short-lived.

This chapter spurs on his indefinite relentlessness to find a cure for the contagion despite his lack of knowledge, spending his hours meticulously researching to better grasp the possibility of a workable vaccine.

Considerable achievements are made by Neville in these isolated moments, only to be temporarily discarded once more with the inclusion of a female. Almost maternal instincts take over(to the surprise of our hero) and he makes it his priority to protect this new unwilling guest in his home, and frets over her possible infection.

She is unwilling to be tested, fear of the possibility too much for her to bear until eventually, she gives in and all hell breaks loose.

The revelation is given to Neville via a small handwritten note and that he is no longer safe.

The stubbornness of humanity rises again as Neville refuses to leave his home and his memories of a life long destroyed and still, remains formidable to the very end.

I shall not reveal details of the final chapter, as for me, it was completely mind-blowing and to this day the idea still haunts me to my very core.

Overall, the novel is an outstanding yet unsettling revelation of human nature, and the evolution of both hero and monsters alike. The main character is a thrilling roller-coaster in himself, increasingly unlikable in the short beginnings of the story though his integrity and willness to survive won me over and I couldn't help but cheer at his achievements and gasp at his shortcomings.  The monsters are calculated and varied, and in some ways metaphorical, encircling both our choices and personal demons that we carry seamlessly.

In the end, are we not so different from them?