Great Special Effects & Premise - Mediocre Delivery.

Rating: 7/10 (2 January 2008)

After a so called cure for cancer mutates the host into a vampire like creature, 90% of earth's population ends up dead. One man, who is immune to the virus, stays in New York to find a cure.
I Am Legend is the third film to be made from the book with the same name. The first two, The Last Man On Earth and The Omega Man, I have not seen. After viewing Legend, I can only hope they both have a stronger second half and conclusion, because Legend fails to capture it's audience in the third act.
The idea behind Legend is great and the in the right hands, the possibilities are endless. After viewing Legend I found myself wondering why it feels like two different films. Years prior Smith starred in a film about Robots taking over the city. In I, Robot the machines climb building walls, crash through glass and will not stop until they kill everyone. The third act of Legend follows the same structure. I couldn't help but picture the vampires as the robots as the climbed buildings and ripped through ceilings. The vampires themselves aren't too impressive on the technical scale. Seeing them attack wasn't as impressive as it should have been. They looked way too fake and it took me out of the reality of the film.
The whole film lands on Smith's shoulders and he pulls it off. The isolation in such a big city takes its course and slowly he begins to lose his mind. He interacts with his dog Sam and mannequins at the video store so he can have some kind of interaction. Tom Hanks did a similar thing in Cast Away. The film starts 3 years after the virus hits and it's a marvel to see the city in the state it's in. The technology we've created is what killed us. The technology we created is what outlived us. Seeing the tall buildings stands still while there is no live around it was astounding. The grass creeping through the streets, the abandoned cars and live animals roaming the city of New York. The special effects for this film is the highlight. It creates an atmosphere that no other post apocalyptic film has ever created. It makes one wonder if this will be our future. If we all die, will the things we created live on.
While the film does try and get us to connect with the lead character at the beginning, it doesn't try to keep that connection. It moves into an action film and I suddenly couldn't really care if Smith lived or died. I felt more of a connection with the dog Sam then I did with Smith. The film works up until one point, then it seems to go downhill and never catches back up with itself. When two new characters suddenly appear on the island.
There are bits and pieces of the film that don't really make sense. Like how all the creature look exactly alike, but those small things aside Legend is an enjoyable flick. It has moments of intense scenes, but then it has moments that make you question why. Such as why there appears to be a leader in the vampire pack. The flashbacks that are used to tell what happened to his family during the contamination of the city aren't that effective. It would have been more useful to have the flashbacks told with different days, instead of one night. Seeing Smith learning new ways to cope with his surroundings, meeting the infected for the first time, anything would have really worked. But they never took that advantage. It would have worked to connect us with Smith's character.
While Legend does have the performances or the conclusion one would hope, but it is worth a look at for it's special effects alone. It has it's fair share of problems, it stars of slow and ends fast. It's a mixed bag, the story is great, but presented on an average form. The special effects are astounding, but some of it look fake, like the vampires. In the end I did enjoy myself and that's what people look for at the movies.