1 of 2

I Am Legend Our rating: Rate this movie   MPAA rating: PG-13 (for sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence) Genre: Horror, Thriller Theater release: November 30, 2007 by Warner Bros. Pictures Directed by: Francis Lawrence Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes Cast: Will Smith (Robert Neville), Alice Braga (Anna) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

In the audience's first sweep through I Am Legend's deserted, overgrown and devastated New York City, Robert Neville (Will Smith) drives past a truck with the same poster plastered over it several times. It reads, "God still loves us."

At first, it seems this may be an ironic jab. After all, this is a dark, apocalyptic film about one man left to rot in a seemingly Godless world. But by the end, that poster seems to be a subtle thesis statement.

This is the third major film incarnation of the 1954 horror novella I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (writer of The Twilight Zone: The Movie and several sci-fi/horror stories). Considered a horror classic, it has influenced writers including Stephen King and films such as Night of the Living Dead, but its track record on film isn't as impressive.

Will Smith as Robert Neville, with his dog Sam

The most well known version is the dated and goofy The Omega Man (1971) with Charlton Heston. Like that film, I Am Legend is more "inspired" by the book than a cinematic re-telling. The filmmakers weave their own story and themes (including all of the spiritual content) out of the book's basic premise that a virus has decimated the Earth. And only one man seems to have survived its effects.

The film begins with the TV news. A doctor (an uncredited Emma Thompson) explains how her team was able to mutate the measles virus. She tells the news anchor that measles is like "a fast car with a madman at the wheel" but her team believed it could be used for good if "a cop were driving it instead." And so, they mutated the virus and turned it into a successful cure for cancer. Flash forward three years: that mutated virus has killed 90 percent of the population and turned most survivors into Darkseekers—pale, hairless, zombie-like predators who feast on blood.

A military scientist, Neville seeks a cure for the virus

Neville, a military scientist who tried to stop the virus, is apparently the only unaffected human left. With his dog, Sam—many animals were unaffected by the virus—Neville lives in a well-protected New York townhouse stocked with generators and canned food. By night, he hides from the shrieks of the Darkseekers with Sam as his only comfort. By day, he hunts deer in Times Square, talks to mannequin "neighbors" he has posed in the video store, and works tirelessly to find a cure for the Darkseekers. Neville is consumed by guilt that he couldn't stop the disease's warpath. After all, TIME called him humanity's savior. But he failed. Test after test, Neville insists that he "can still fix this." But can he?

With this promising premise, a dynamic and captivating performance by Smith, and a tensely eerie atmosphere, I Am Legend gets a strong start. The cinematography of the barren and overgrown New York City streets is breathtaking, and Smith is evocative and emotional. In fact, the movie's tension and fright are almost completely thanks to the way he display very genuine terror, sadness, and childlike-dread.

The movie seems headed to be a provocative apocalyptic epic and stirring character study thanks to its dark futuristic prognosis (a la Children of Men, 28 Days Later or 12 Monkeys), gripping glimpses of the paranoia, fear and madness of loneliness (a la Castaway). Unfortunately, it can't maintain the level of these better films. In fact, director Francis Lawrence seems to want to have two types of films at once: this type of contemplative horror saga and a pulpy, crowd-pleasing popcorn flick. It's like the artsy Children of Men with Resident Evil breaking out at the end. I Am Legend aspires to greater peaks, but unravels in B-movie silliness very similar to the director's only other film, Constantine, where Keanu Reeves used a cross-shaped gun to kill demons.

Neville and Sam hide out from the Darkseekers

The movie is decent for what it is, but fans of the book and those expecting more from the grandiose and epic-looking trailers may be disappointed. The problem isn't really that the second half of the movie switches from atmospheric to action focused. Instead, the plot becomes action-based instead of the action being plot-based. Smith brings such heart to the movie, but the second half of his fight against the Darkseekers is just impersonal and, well, fake.

next page... |  1 of 2 | last page