I Am Legend

Rating: 5/10 (15 August 2008)

From director Francis Lawrence (Constantine), this is quite a good remake of classics The Last Man on Earth and The Omega Man, but just like Signs, it could have been perfect without flashbacks and slowing scenes. The film begins with an interview from Dr. Alice Krippin ( Emma Thompson) who has apparently found the cure for cancer, it then cute to three years later, 2012, in deserted New York City, grass breaking through pavement, cars rusting and buildings covered in plastic. Dr. Robert Neville (Will Smith) and his dog Sam are the only ones living there, and Neville is not only surviving and keeping out of the dark away from the vampire-like zombie creatures, affected by the virus, but he is still trying to find the cure for the virus, testing it on rats, and then humans. The flashbacks by the way sees he saying goodbye to his wife Zoe (Salli Richardson) and son Marley (Willow Smith) as the city is being evacuated. After Sam is killed, Neville attempts suicide or revenge (maybe a bit of both), he finds survivors Anna (Alice Braga) and Ethan (Charlie Tahan), and it seems they might be more danger than they think when he takes them back to his place. But it turns out he has found a cure, and he thought it had failed, but predictably, he is not the one to give the authorities the cure, and he sacrifices himself. It isn't as scary or as inventive as I'd hoped it could have been, but Smith is quite engaging as the one survivor, if only the ending wasn't so predictable. Worth watching!