A great horrifying and depressing journey of a man's faith in his kind

Rating: 8/10 (13 December 2007)

Firstly I'd like to mention the trailer of I Am Legend, as it could be the best trailer of the year for following reasons: 1, intriguing and attractive;2, potential theme and expandable action sequences; 3, a misleading effect as if the movie is more about surviving than horror!! And that's a flaw. The movie's horror element is so overdone that 1, the audiences are always depressed and expecting to be tortured by more escalating darkness.2,whenever Will Smith express his feeling by screaming, it looks like a parody because the audiences can finally breath for a moment and some of us even laugh at him in relaxation. The movie should never be rated PG-13.
Well, that's enough for complains. I Am Legend is very innovative in its visual style that all the details in the scenes implies Apocalypse. It has obviously more CGI than Children of Men and overall it's well done, for both the ruins of New York and Zombies(or human-shaped monsters, etc.). Honestly I never expect some CG zombie to be so scary. Will Smith did a good job, he successfully delivers a man twisted by fate and by loneliness. He is the core of the whole movie. Therefore the movie is a journey about the his role. He used to be a person of family, but after the disaster he became godless, holding a belief of both right and wrong ideas about his kind. Insisting to treat the zombies by his blood for 3 years, he found out this belief is too far to reach and too valuable to abandon. Therefore the movie intentionally showed his suffering in long shots, which is a torture to both Will and the audiences until the female survivor appeared. Her arrival, also has multiple effects on Will's character. On the good side restores his faith in searching for others, on the other hand spoils his "Ground Zero"--attempts to cure zombies. After a final battle, Will got a chance to redeemed his faith......
Well, if you think you can think about such themes after the 1st viewing, I recommend this one to you. However if you are:1, heart-conditioned;2, under 18; 3, easily depressed; 4, afraid of darkness I strongly suggest you don't see it.