Worn out

Rating: 6/10 (9 July 2008)

One can't stop thinking what could've come out as a movie/result, if Alex Proyas would have directed this movie? See his Dark City, if you haven't, to understand where I'm going with this (there's also a Directors Cut coming this year). It's kind of the same feeling many had when Resident Evil came out and were yearning for the George A. Romero version of it.
But behold, I am Legend never goes completely off tracks, as Resident Evil did (that's of course in my humble opinion). While the director and the star (Will Smith) here try to make a decent (dark) horror drama, they don't really live up to the task. The movie has it's weird moments and some nice scary ... scares, but in the end, some plot holes, the not entirely convincing "bad guys", a real bad turn in the third act, all add up to undermine what the movie had achieved previous to that point. The end is then a big disappointment, not because it's not clear (I did get the hints/signs, without seeing the Directors cut or alternate ending stuff), but because you came to expect more from it.
I haven't seen any of the other adaptations nor did I read the book, but I can safely say that while Will Smith plays it straight, he's character is undermined by many script flaws. So he is flirting with puppets/mannequin(s), but only comes back as a boomerang at the end (if you watch the movie you know what I mean). It's a shame then, that it hasn't succeeded in walking the thin line between entertainment and dark horror drama/study ....