Riveting Science-Fiction at its finest as only Will Smith delivers and executes brilliantly

Rating: Null/10 (8 January 2008)

Military virologist Robert Neville(Will Smith) is alone,somewhere on the edge of sanity,patrolling barren New York City streets in a battered SUV,with his steadfast German shepherd,Sam. No pedestrians bustle along Fifth Avenue.,in Times Square,or Chinatown. Yellow taxis sit idle,bumper-to-bumper,with no passengers and no place to go. Grass grows up through the pavement as nature exerts its revenge. Deer herds run wild. Demons lurk in the shadows. It's not a dream. It's a nightmare,a living nightmare. The frightening picture of a world gone astray is very realistic as it gets.
Richard Matheson's 1954 novel of the aftermath of a plague and desperate isolation has inspired earlier films,including "The Last Man On Earth"(Vincent Price,1964),and "The Omega Man"(Charlton Heston,1971). Screenwriter Mark Protosevich,who developed this script with writer/producer Akiva Goldsman(Academy Award winner for "A Beautiful Mind");Will Smith along with producer James Lassiter(who was behind Will Smith's Oscar nominated film "The Pursuit of Happiness");and director Francis Lawrence("Constantine")saw this adaptation as a contemporary science-fiction allegory. The year the story is set is in 2012,three years after a manmade,retrofitted virus has run amok. Neville follows his daily routine. He's cordial and keeps conversations with unknowns(such as talking to mannequins)light;it helps him retain some semblance of normalcy. He sends out an S.O.S over the airwaves,"If there is anybody out there,anybody. Please You are not alone." For means of survival,he patrols Gotham hunting deer and chasing images. As the night falls,he and Sam hunker down in a brownstone near Washington Square. Neville bars the doors and shutters the windows. He curls up in the bathtub in a fetal position with Sam and a submachine gun. Terrified. Things scream outside:the living dead,mutant victims of the plague,dark feeders led by a vicious alpha male(Dash Mihok).
Although post-apocalypse films aren't new("Planet of the Apes","Mad Max","The Road Warrior","28 Days Later","Vanilla Sky"),most feature several protagonists. Neville,however,is bereft of any human contact. Haunted by the past,the mass evaculation of New York City,and the loss of his wife(Salli Richardson),and child(Willow Smith),he reasons that he must find a cure for the mutants' misery. The setting of Manhattan has rarely felt so desolute. It's isolated and abandoned. It's dreadful and very terrifying. Danger is around the corner never knowing what Neville would expect toward the unexpected. Never knowing what is over your shoulder. Then from the moment when the dark feeders appear,Robert knows he has to fight for his life,even if it means survival of the fittest. The stark skyscraper ghost town sets an eerie tone. Uncanny special effects and the sound team's fearsome,growling mutant canines,zombie wails,and thunderous deer stampedes augment their efforts. These technical strengths mitigate the film's transgressions. By all rights,"I Am Legend",is stunning entertainment. And it may win that distinction,but not without some flaws. Everything goes right for the first 45 minutes,then over-ambitious plotting,slow pacing and melodrama,it lets the viewer hungry for more quick-tempo action sequences and concise character studies,since overall Will Smith himself,is carrying the balance of the picture. Yet,just about anything goes in a Will Smith movie,and here Smith's performance is magnetic. He digs emotional depths and exhibits a spellbinding aura while sharing screen time with only a dog and menacing shadows. This is riveting science fiction at its finest,with a philosophical concept cloaked in a new age of a world gone astray and a man facing sheer terror at every turn.