Amazingly Overrated: Don't waste your time

Rating: 3/10 (22 December 2007)

I'm sure you've read about the astonishing scenes of a vast, empty-of-humans daytime New York, weeds growing out of cracks in the asphalt and sidewalk cement. You've read about the horrifying people of the night, horrific eaters of the few remaining normal humans, so monstrous to see you can barely watch. Oh! That was scary! Sudden fabulous horror movie moments that make you jump like the first time you saw Carrie and at the end Amy Irving's hand shot up out of the ground. And all alone, heroic Will Smith, trying to save the world, but all alone in the movie, something like Tom Hanks in Castaway maybe.
Well, uh uh. On all counts. In every single one of those scenic shots you can see where the production designers carefully placed the fake weeds. All the stalled cars, empty buildings--the whole thing looks like a set. It doesn't look real for one second. You never get lost in the film; it's always oh yes, I'm watching Will Smith in I Am Legend. He's really buff! Get this: every single darn one of the monster people looks EXACTLY alike! No expense spared! They aren't supposed to look alike--they're all different people who caught a yucky virus. But they're all the same bald man. Wow. OK, you get my point. Booooring. No scares. This ain't no Castaway. This is a Will Smith phone-it-in. Hello Hollywood...every time I see a writing credit with somebody's name and then under it Akiva Goldsman, I think I'll skip it. How about he actually writes a movie for a change? BTW, the directing is pedestrian.