I am waste of time and money

Rating: 1/10 (21 December 2007)

I am legend is a very predictable story of what happens when an engineered cure for cancer turns malign. The resulting virus, which mostly resembles rabies, kills most of the population worldwide, except for some 500 million that turn into... of course, a sort of werewolves that feed on the remaining million that are immune. This in itself is a very worn out and unrealistic theme by now and the werewolf angle only makes it more silly.
Our 'hero' is living in the remains of a big city (NY) and luckily for us he is a biological engineer working for the military. In his house he has a laboratory (¿) to find a cure, which he has time for, when he is not out shooting deer, weredogs and -wolves, or is engaged in another boring 'activity'. The dramatic height of the movie is when his dog dies, which had about the same impact on me as when i see i stepped on an ant; boring. There is hardly any character development and well, it's Will Smith, which usually plays Will Smith. The acting is mediocre, at best.
The camera-work is less than mediocre. There are too many scenes that play in the dark, so you can just guess whats going on, which is not so hard, because its all terribly predictable. They spent way too much money on the making of this movie, for it to look so bad. It may be nice if you live in NY to see what your city would become, but to me that means nothing. (and why is there a Lockheed SR71 blackbird on an aircraft carrier? The thing can't land there and they've been out of use for quite a while now *edit* i found it is Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, in NY. Nice if you live in NY and know these things, otherwise useless *end edit*). I watch a movie to see nice images, not 15 minutes of utter darkness...
The end comes pretty hastily with a few narrated lines that should give the whole thing meaning. Should, but doesn't. Along the way there are a few lines that attempt to give it some depth, as in philosophical truths or meaning of which the best is: 'I didn't do it, we did', i want to reply; 'no really, you did!'
I think they tried to copy the i robot feel-style with the music of Bob Marley (Was stevie wonder in I Robot) and they added an anecdote of Bob to give it some 'depth'. Bob was great at making music, but that doesn't imply he was a great philosopher. In the Netherlands we have Johan Cruyff, maybe you heard of him; an ex great football (soccer) player which tends to say things in the media. So now he is quoted for his 'wise' saying: "Every disadvantage has it's advantage" (pronounced with Amsterdam accent for dramatic effect). Goes to show that someone great in one field isn't necessarily great in another.
As for humor, there isn't any. I think they tried a few times... "I wanted to save the bacon".... but... no.
Very, very disappointing movie. I even wanted to stop watching a number of times, but didn't because i kept hoping a movie with Will Smith in it would get better at some point. It only got worse.
My advise: You can miss this one. There are a lot of better movies already made about virus outbreaks and apocalypses. Watch one of those again, saves money and its less boring. Unless of course you want to be apocalypticly bored.