It was a pretty good movie - better than I expected - not overwhelming with special effects and underwhelming with plot. I might have forgotten the entire thing if it were not for my habitual idleness at work. I absently looked for "i am legend" on google and accessed an explanation of the title - something not quite conveyed in the movie.
Derived from a 1954 sci fi novel, the protagonist became the mass murderer of the newly mutated humanity. He became the genetic freak, lurking in the wee hours, killing with purpose and abandon. The nocturnal "freaks" were now the norm. The human skulking around during the day, killing as much as he could was the legendary creature, like vampires.
The concept inspired a brief burst of thoughts, the primary one being how quickly a massive shift in genetic revision can happen in the wake of a cataclysmic event. I can't imagine it happening in the span of 3 years, as in the movie. But, after a reasonably brief time of survival and selection and gene expression, it's possible to repopulate with the new species. It won't have to be the millions of years that got us to our current state of complexity. Rather, decades. Brings up an issue that's had me wondering. Are humans condemned to play out a new stable state with the traits that enabled them to survive conditions that no longer exist?
