Great first part, loses energy toward the end

Rating: 6/10 (10 December 2007)

Criticisms about the first part being better than the last part are understandable. The mechanics and struggle depicted kept me wanting more and dreading what the next corner or shadow might bring. As with any LMOE (last man on earth) movie, the set design pertaining to a deserted world are fascinating and subliminally terrifying (the novelty of having New York all to yourself lasts only so long until you'll have New York, all to yourself). The cinematography and look of the picture are top notch. The story starts off with a great "hook" that tells you everything you need to know with ONE CUT. Will Smith doesn't have much characterization to work with, but he's a lot more believable here with a low amount of dialog than he has been in some of his previous movies. The movie doesn't have some of the philosophical conceits that Matheson's novel has, but the set-up has been retained along with the character's main purpose- future filmmakers that want to remake this in 20 years won't have to fight against the memory of this film. That said... the movie does contain a needless (and tacked on?) subplot involving "faith." I'm not talking about the belief in a creed or idea, I'm talking about the kind of one-dimensional boilerplate you'd find in a "left behind" novel where the simple fact that a character says he believes is enough for plot and character development. I've nothing against characters or plots dealing with theocratic concepts, but those ideas and concepts better be at the heart of your story. Here, it's a few lines of dialog inserted to give the characters something to yell at each other about. Oddly, most of this seems like it was inserted. My concerns about this probably stem from the fact that the "faith" element randomly pops up where it doesn't need to- the main danger of the story is that scary things are coming to kill you. Deal with that. The main thrust of Dawn of the Dead comes from the idea that there are people locked up from hordes of zombies- all their actions stem from that set-up. In I Am Legend, the main motivator of one man against rampaging ghouls is set aside because one character has "faith." Unfortunately, and I'm not sure if this is a drawback, the whole project comes across as a big budget remake of 28 Days Later (so much so that the ghouls of the picture are called "infected" in the credits). Is this bad? Only if you don't like the movie. I like most of the movie so I'm not too bothered. Final verdict, not the disaster I was expecting but not something that will stand the test of time. If you're sick of Enchanted and relatives, Joe Bob says "Check it out."