I Am Man!

Rating: 8/10 (2 January 2010)

Will Smith at the moment is the world only superstar which could ensure a studio can make big profit in any film he stars in. Since 2002 he has not had a flop film, Men in Black II, Boy Boys II, I, Robot, Hitch, The Pursuit of Happiness and Hancock: some of them are actually pretty good. He is a unique position to do what ever he wants and now produces many of his films. But even with I Am Legend it demands a lot from an actor, because he has the carry the film all by himself. But luckily he does in a film that works.
In the 2012 most of the world has be whipped out or turned in a vampire-zombie hybrid (the Darkseekers). They act like zombie, surviving just to eat flesh of any animal, but can not go out in sunlight. They seem to lack any humanity. Also animals like rats and dogs can be inflected by the virus. In New York there is only one man left, Robert Neville (Will Smith), with his dog Sam, his only companion. He is a army officer and a virologist, who spends his days researching for a cure, hunting and growing food, exercising, sending out radio messages, and waiting for possible survivors at South Street Seaport. He does try to keep active just keep his mind from frying, like watching DVDs, old TV boardcasts and playing golf off an aircraft carrier. At night he stays in his home, staying alert in case there is an attack by the Darkseekers. Robert Neville at night suffer from flashbacks when the virus gets out and when he takes his wife and young daughter Marley (Salli Richardson and Willow Smith) to Brooklyn Bridge to fled the city. There is renewed hope for humanity when one of his formulas starts to work on a inflected rat. He needs a Darkseeker to ensure that the cure would work on humans.
I Am Legend is a good film, but it's also a film of two halves. There is the really good half showing Robert Neville as a man by himself and a fascinating look of the effects of isolation from humanity, showing signs that his mental facilities are starting to slip. Will Smith gives an excellent performance of a man on the edge who had to life at every turn, and on a desperate mission to save the world by himself. There is a good emotional drive, particularly involving his Sam (I don't want to give the game away). As a psychological film it works. What lets the film down is the action side. They are some decent action scenes, and they are some moments that are really good like the beam of sunlight dividing Sam and the infected dogs. But the director Francis Lawrence was too reliant on CGI. It was pretty obvious when he used to for animals like deers and lions, and especially on the Darkseekers. It would have looked more realistic, effective and scary (and properly cheaper) to cast actors and get a good make-up team to put prosthetic on them.
Besides from the CGI, Francis Lawrence does offer a steady hand behind the camera and he does have potential as a director. He does have some problems and I think he needs to direct a smaller project just to prove what he can do. Ridley Scott and Guillermo del Toro were linked to the film and I think though two could have made a good film even better. Del Toro would have been really suited to the material. But Michael Bay also at one point was going to direct and we all know that would have been a CGI porn explosion fest.
A little note, this was the film that got me in Bob Marley, having his song played throughout it, which is never a bad thing.
If you enjoy post-apocalyptic fiction like 28 Days Later or Stephen King's the Stand then you should enjoy I Am Legend.