I Am Almost A Great Movie But Due To Some Bad Decisions Am Ultimately Disappointing

Rating: 7/10 (27 January 2008)

Will Smith has come a hell of a long way since "Fresh Prince", and after some great turns over the last few years he's become a pretty well respected actor, but as the last man on earth can he carry a movie solely on the shoulders of him and his dog? Luckily, for the most part he can. He's certainly got the charisma to fill a big screen on his own, and considering the majority of the movie is him wandering around empty streets, it's surprisingly absorbing. Where the movie falls down though is with it's effects. It's not that the CG here looks terrible, it's just completely unnecessary. The empty New York streets aside there's nothing being done here digitally that wasn't being done ten years ago with make-up and stuntmen, and there's plenty of movies which have done this kind of thing far cheaper and more effectively.
In comparison to the terrifying infected in "28 Days Later" the rabid nasties in "Legend" just don't cut the mustard. They also stick out like a big sore CG thumb, ruining the impressive shaky-cam realism that the movie has worked pretty hard to achieve. It's a shame, because the jarring effects aside there's a lot of atmosphere on show, and if the effects geezers had gone down a more sensible route this could have been something special.