the tale of Robert Neville, five years in the future...

Rating: 7/10 (15 December 2007)

Another post-apocalyptic flick? And this time with Will "gettin jiggy with it" Smith. And from the director of Constantine. But I liked it. Or at least relative to what are much better films of this ilk (28 Days... movies, where they don't rely on CGI for every single infected) and lesser (30 Days of Night, if the comparison stands. Director Francis Lawrence deals with the tragic nature of the "last man is not alone" idea seriously, and with little touches of humor (some of it, of course, relying on Smith's charm, which in a weird way makes his small-talk to mannequins he has set up in a video store as the sad continuation of social mental stability). It's also amplified by his companion, a dog, who becomes like the quasi-Wilson of the picture- only, arguably, with more sympathy going out to a dog than a volleyball. Their scenes are the most heartfelt, but without having to try or cloy too much.
I liked the dark atmosphere for many of the scenes, particularly dark in the sense of it being literal (Robert Neville going around in the building to find Samantha). And I also like how the writers, taking off of Matheson's great source of a novel, at the path of professional and mental well-being, in the face of absolute (and calculable) doom. Even some bits of rational vs irrationalism between Ana and Neville work pretty well. And it goes without saying the impressive scope of the special effects - meaning almost all of the location scenes out and about in Manhattan where telling CGI or green screen or what is very difficult.
For everything that is impressive, and for a big-big studio movie (probably the most expensive "zombie" movie ever made), there are some liabilities. Some may differ, but the infected as shown are all complete CGI creations, and look as such. There are some legitimate scares (the bit with the girl on the operating table that jets up after what looks like death is a good one), especially in the old-fashioned "dont-go-there" kind where things crawl in the unknown spaces. But the design of the infected is never very compelling, they look like monsters and despite the difference from a 28 Days kind of movie the lack of a recognizable human feature (past the obvious fact that as mutants they're meant to look a little skewed) it's never too compelling an example. They look, as many suggest, out of a run-of-the-mill Playstation game.
But nevertheless it's worth a full admission price; I Am Legend is creepy entertainment that works well for the multiplexes. Smith as the (would-be) lone hero Robert Neville is in near perfect form; it might even be his best dramatic performance to date, where he calls on all of his resources to make this a guy we want on our side. He makes Neville much more human than Charlton Heston did in The Omega Man, and believable when he should be at his most pathetic. Even through monologing about Bob Marley Smith's interesting- a true leading man, and well worth this respectable treatment of a once-again adaptation of a classic science fiction/horror piece. Whether it's a great film or not you be the judge.