*Spoilers* Horrible Adaptation and Ending, Well Acted by Will Smith

Rating: 5/10 (26 December 2007)

This movie is easy enough to like if you have not read the book it seems to be very loosely based on. Let me preface by saying I went into this movie expecting great things given the nature of the book and what I believed would be something incredibly more insightful and meaningful than a typical zombie flick.
It wasn't long before it became apparent that the movie wasn't going to be faithful to the book. OK. That's fine, a large mistake in my opinion, but not a fatal one. The first 3/4 of the movie sees Will Smith struggling to cope with his loneliness in a post apocalyptic New York city. He is alone, save his canine companion Sam, or so we think until we see that Zombie like, albeit more intelligent and agile creatures hide in the dark and feast at night. This is all well acted by Smith as he shows the effects of paranoia and loneliness on a person. Then the stumbling block falls into play. Enter a woman and child who save Smith from certain death, who shatter the themes and ideas that the film has been developing all along. What we see from this point on, is a typical Hollywood film that seems to relegate Smith more to the role of an action star. The sour cherry on top is when the ending when the woman and child discover a civilization of survivors. All that is lost is smith, and he is made a hero icon. It is at this point that I realized how badly Hollywood butchered the idea of the book.
In the book the I Am Legend title stems from the fact that as many others have pointed out Neville becomes a pariah figure by a race of vampires who view him ironically enough as the outcast, not because he is a hero figure for future generations. Simply Awful.