The Legend rolls on and off

Rating: Null/10 (30 December 2007)

(Karthik Narayan)
One man against an army of zombies on a deserted New York city (What am I saying! Which part of "deserted" did you not understand?)  That is the storyline of this movie which shows mankind in its last stages.
Based on the book by Richard Matheson, this movie brings us Will Smith as Col/ Dr. Neville, the last man standing (if you don't consider the zombies) and Samantha, his loving dear dog. (For dog lovers like me, this movie was great as Samantha appeared in a lot of frames).
For action lovers, this isn't quite the movie; the first half of the movie is a crawl, but with great acting by Smith. It's never easy playing a lonely man in the middle of a big city  you do get the hallucinations, the delirium  Smith plays that with the finest of ease  his facial expressions tell you that this seasoned actor has come a long way since his days as the Prince of Bel Air. Apart from Smith and the dog, there isn't much at all in the first half (literally)  unless you consider his talking to mannequins in the DVD rental store.
But once the zombies smell human blood, the action begins. In the movie theatre we were all actually rooting for the zombies because they brought in all the action to an otherwise silent movie.
The second half promised a lot and I should say, it was more of a comedy movie in the first half and a horror movie partly in the remaining part. Smith found out he wasn't the only human being left on earth, he found the cure for cancer, but didn't live long enough to collect his first Nobel (No chances for Oscar either), the humans managed to survive and beat the virus with his miracle and life moved on after his legend.
Overall, a good movie to watch  if you want to test your patience for at least 40 minutes, then test your adrenaline with 50 minutes of zombies, gory blood and good music. One of the good sci-fi movies I have seen this year (if this wasn't the only movie, that is)
The graphics were spectacular  just imagining NYC to be vacant, cars smashed, deserted with cobwebs lying around the big skyscrapers  simply mind-boggling. Out of this world, really! Sony Pictures, take a bow. And Brooklyn Bridge was a sight to see, really. Worth watching, for each of the $5 million spent to film that scene.
For pure cinema and great graphics, I rate this movie a 7/10.