8 - Friday, January 4, 2008 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Smith's skills carry I am Legend' Despite lingering plot questions, 'Legend' excites and frightens By SHERI JANKELOVITZ Daily Arts Writer Robert Neville (Will Smith, "Inde- pendence Day") wakes up each morn- ing, exercises with his dog and then rents movies. A day like any other. The only difference is that Neville is alone, supposedly the last man alive on earth - that is, until the night comes. That's where things get interest- ing. During the night, the "dark seek- ers" come out to feed. Dark seekers are mutated victims of a virus, once thought to be a cure for cancer, which eventually wiped out almost the entire world population. At first glance, "I Am Legend" seems to be yet another post-apoca- lyptic film - human race is wiped out by a deadly virus, last man on earth attempts to salvage the human race - but surprisingly, it isn't. Rather than relying on special effects to drive the story, the film wisely relies on Neville and his human plight. That's not to say the special effects aren't something to marvel at: a completely desolate New York City, overgrown with weeds and teeming with wild animals, is quite a sight. What sets "I Am Legend" apart is the humanistic sto- ryline. His family is dead, along with ***' everyone ,else, and Neville only has his I Am Legend dog left to confide in. At Quality16 Ohyeah, and the dark and Showcase seekers. Each day, Neville Watner Bros. works furiously to find a cure for the virus. Why a cure if he's the only man left on Earth? The movie wisely doesn't try to answer all of the questions it poses, since most of them really don't have logical answers, and, most of these questions won't even occur to you until after the movie anyway, which is probably a good thing., Like most movies of its kind, the actual revealing of the creatures is a letdown. Much of the film's intensity relies on brief glimpses of these dark seekers in pitch black settings. Once the creatures are finally revealed to be some sort of variation on a video game zombie, the film loses some of its ten- sion. No one is left in Manhattan except Will Smith. That's a good thing. Smith offers up a new kind of action hero, one who isn't unrealistically macho - though that's not to say it still isn't the same old Will Smith the world has come to know and love. He's all alone and just barely hanging on to his sanity. It's strange how when watching "Legend" Will Smith seems to be the only actor capable of fitting into this role. It's a character that Will Smith was born to play, especially considering how most of his co-stars are traditionally mere springboards for his witty one-liners anyway. In "I Am Legend," co-stars cutting into the BRIEFS From page 5 by, right? Despite Nicolas Cage being involved, it turned out to be an unexpectedly good time.Well, "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" is more of the same. Almost exactlythe same. Replace Thomas Jefferson with Abraham Lin- col" and ancient Egyptian treasure with ancient Aztec treasure and you've got the framework for the second film. If you're asking how Abe Lincoln could in any way be related to the lostcity of gold, leave it to Ben Gates to explain itto you through a series of ciphers, puzzles and codes. The "National Treasure"series (Who would've ever predicted this would become a series?) con- tinues to be more interesting than, say, the mon- strosity that is "The Da Vinci Code," and it's an unusual bit of live-action, family-friendly fun sel- dom seen of late. Don't go expecting your kids to learn anything, though, because you might find them failing history when they write a report about how Paul Revere killed Hitler to steal his stash of African conflict diamonds. PAUL TASSI Terrible writing ends a classic series AVPR: Aliens vs. Predator At Quality 16 and Showcase Twentieth Century-Fox Yesterdayitwasmadeofficial.RidleyScottread the eulogy. James Cameron brought the flowers. 'And Gov. Schwarzenegger, sniffing back tears himself, comforted the mourners. The "Alien" and "Predator" franchises, sadly, are dead. "AVPR," the name used for this film by people eagerly awaiting the release of "Battlefield Earth 2," could very well have brought acclaim back to its family. After the disappointingly hackneyed and tame "AVP: Alien vs. Predator" (2004), the ideaofhavingtwo of cinema's most famous galac- tic monsters duke it out on Earth sounded like just the kind of rejuvenation the series needed - too bad no one told the filmmakers that what made the earlier films so good was their focus on well-written scripts andthoughtful characteriza- tion, none of which are on display in this shame- ful second cousin. Instead, "AVPR" boasts lots of contrived and unexciting action, all structured around a batch of brainless characters who act like they just stumbled out of a typical slasher movie. It's all flash with zero emotional investment. Bad movies come and go all the time, fiz- zling out at the box office and dying quick deaths just as "AVPR" has. It's just too bad this clunker had to take two perfectly respectable franchises with it. BRANDONCONRADIS Party in the city where the heat is on "Will Smith Show" are almost entirely absent. You'll find yourself holding your breath, peeking out from behind your fingers and, all the while, caring about what happens to poor Robert Neville and his dog. These are mighty accom- plishments considering the fact that "I Am Legend" was probably intended to be another typical Will Smith vehicle. But perhaps this film could be consid- ered the ultimate Will Smith vehicle. Dewey walks the walk By ANNIE LEVENE Daily Arts Writer The success of a slew of recent biopics featuring famous and tortured musicians has ensured that the genre could remain sacred for only so long. After all, we are a nation that embraced four "Scary Movie" films. "Walk Hard," an unapologetic take on the 2005 Johnny Cash film "Walk the Line," follows Dewey Cox's (John C. Reilly, "Tal- ladega Nights: The Ballad ofW Ricky Bobby") Walk Hard: journey from a The Dewey boy to a tragic Cox Story bluesman. The film is the lat- At Showcase est installment Columbia from writing, directing and producing wunderkind Judd Apatow ("Superbad"). Dewey's love affair with the musical world begins soon after his involvement in the accidental murder of his older brother, Nate, who is diagnosed as "a particu- larly bad case of somebody being cut in half." Fortunately, Dewey is a quick study on guitar, other- wise, he would have been in for some pretty expensive therapy bills. Married at the age of 14 and discovered singing in a bar soon after, Dewey's rise to stardom is fast and furious. True to biop- ic form, the fame comes with women, drugs and an inevitable downfall. As the decades pass, changes to Dewey's style accu- rately reflect what was really going on in the musical world. Subtle jokes include off-hand mentions of legends like Bob Dylan and a not-to-miss seg- ment when Dewey meets the Classic. They visit every year, but expect something new from Emerson Eat your heart out, Dov Charney. Beatles that hit home for those of us who aren't 12-year-old middle schoolers looking for a cheaper laugh. The actual music of the film is also a pleasant surprise. Reilly, who has a background in musical theater, does double duty, acting and singing all of Cox's songs. The recordings, including innu- endo-laden ballad "Let's Duet," are catchy and somewhat believ- able as number one hits. Apatow and fellow writer and director Jake Kasdan ("Freaks and Geeks") rely heavily on Reil- ly, who portrays Dewey from age 13 until he's a senior citizen. The actor's ease with both comedic and melodramatic material earns him the right to upgrade from sidekick status into a full-fledged member of the merry band of Frat Packers, such as Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell and Owen Wilson. While Reilly shoulders much of the comedic burden, the film's supporting cast work hard to pick up some of the slack. Tim Mead- ows ("Mean Girls") is especially good as Dewey's bandmate and enabler. Other familiar faces, ghosts of "Saturday Night Live" past and present, as well as some of Apatow's favorites, show up throughout. The weakness, as is often the case in this type of film, are the female supporting leads. Kris- ten Wiig ("Knocked Up") and Jenna Fischer ("The office") do just fine as the women in Dew- ey's life, but they aren't given much to work with. Fischer, as Dewey's second wife and backup singer Darlene, is wide-eyed and pretty, but does little more than nag Dewey into being a cleaner, though somewhat less enter- taining, man. The film doesn't do anything wrong: the jokes are funny and the plot is clever. However, "Walk Hard" lacks that fuzzy, feel good ending that made other Apatow films like "The 40 Year Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up." We like laughing at Dewey, and we tap our toes to his music, but we don't really care if everything works out, even though we know it will. By BEN VANWAGONER DailyArts Writer in the realm of classical music, these four men need no intro- duction. These are four men who have been setting the standard in quartets for years and who have been performing together, for 30. They've played in Emerson every major con- String cert hall in theQ country and in dozens through- Today at8p.m. out Europe - the At Rackham only concert Auditorium halls that have not hosted this distinguished group are the ones that wish they could. Time maga- zine called them "America's great- est quartet" and that is just one of many accolades they've earned recently. Oh, and they've won eight Grammys. The Emerson String Quartet visits Ann Arbor every year, and every year they play a concert with a vastly different program. The Quartet is famous for its incredi- ble versatility, for its ability to play both classical and modern pieces with equal grace and fervor. Last year was Dvorak, this year will be Janacek, Saariaho, Bartok and the University's own Bright Sheng. If you haven't heard of these com- posers, don't feel too bad. Neither had I. "Oh, but you must know Janacek? He's a Czech com- poser," said Phillip Setzer, one of the Quartet's two violinists, in a phone interview. He was quick to assure me that my ignorance wasn't important, that the concert would still engaging because it wasn't about knowing all the com- posers or how many fugues they'd written. "The [University Musical Soci- ety] has chosen a really interest- ing program this year, one I think will be very rewarding," Setzer said. "It's not a concert with a bunch of Mozart and then one modern piece, where the modern one sticks out like a sore thumb and just doesn't fit in. It's going to be all modern, and they are some wonderful selections." Setzer's enthusiasm was palpa- ble. I'd reached him in a cab as he- rushed from rehearsal to another engagement downtown, but he spoke as if he'd been planning the speech for years. "All the pieces are very power- ful. The first one is the Janacek, and it's asortoflove letterhe wrote to a younger woman - a love he never realized," he said. The Saa- riaho piece has it's own story of a slightly different kind of love. "She wrote it for my mother, who had just passed away. It's full of so many strange, wonder- ful sounds. It's a beautiful, haunt- ing work," Setzer said. The third selection is a composition by Uni- versity prof. Bright Sheng, entitled "The Miraculous," and it will be the work's U.S. premier. "The program is quite chal- lenging, but in a good way, like a really good novel," Setzer said. "I won't be able to stop concen- trating for a second. I think the audience will have quite a treat hearing this." The relative obscurity of the composers in tonight's program highlights one of the rising con- cerns in classical music: relevance. Why is this music - not just classi- cal in general, but modern classical - important to a young audience? Why should it be important? Why should you go? "Classical music is art," Setzer said. "In fact, it's some of the greatest art ever produced. Saying you don't need classical music is like saying you don'tcneed the great authors, or the great painters, and you do, you need all of them." And classical music is even more, he claims: "It's not about being snobby. Classical music is a very powerful way of communi- cating - it's communicating with- out words, and I think that's very profound."