Not as bad as you have heard...

Rating: 8/10 (23 April 2008)

Right, my second ever review I have made on a film on IMDb (first being Cloverfield), and it's a positive one :] Lets start with a plot synopsis.
I Am Legend is a film centred around an army scientist, Dr. Robert Neville, who is the last man on earth after a virus spreads across the world, killing 90% its population and leaving the others as either flesh eating, Vampire-like creatures (mainly due to their extreme reactions to sun/UV light) or people who are immune to the effects. However, the creatures kill the remaining population, leaving Robert Neville as the last surviving human, desperately trying to find a cure to the virus and survive the nights.
Now, I have heard a lot of negative reviews on this film, most of which are unjustified. Though I can respect that each reviewer on here has the right to his/her opinions and I don't wish to change them, it's the critics I'm most surprised about. Mainly due to the fact that one reviewer criticised the film for not having enough action...the action supplied within the film is ample enough, all of them exciting ad gripping, but the critic must o missed the point that the film is in fact not about the action and the monsters, it's about Neville.
Robert Neville is played by Will Smith, who gives the performance of his career. Giving excellent depth and feeling to an incredibly lonely man, who has suffered traumatic events and whose sanity is slowly slipping away. Smith's portrayal of the loneliest man on earth is the driving point to the film, showing he is a very versatile actor who can switch from great comedy actor to a convincing and moving drama actor (though this has happened in only a few of his films).
The narrative of the film is simple, with a few flashbacks to detail what has happened to Neville's family, with its day-night structure easy to follow. However, while the day scenes are fantastic thanks to Smith's performances, many people believe the night-time is when the film fails.
This is largely due to the CGI effects used to create the creatures. Critics and cinema goers alike believed that the CGI for the film was terrible and unnecessary, when they could of used real people to portray the creatures, such as in 28 Days Later.
I disagree, while CGI could o been better, it really isn't that bad! The creatures move and behave inhuman enough to make us believe that they could exist, while the stunts that would of been required if they used people for the roles may have been too extreme, meaning that the action scenes would not have been as exciting.
While I personally dislike the 2 endings available to the film (the alternative ending available on the 2nd disc of the DVD release is probably an un-improvement), and the 2 survivors that save Neville at the end are pretty annoying, I generally very much enjoyed this film.
It offered a far more deep and interesting Blockbuster in contrast to brainless movies like Transformers (even if I did kinda enjoy it) and Rush Hour 3 (big disappointment), with tense and often very creepy atmosphere and action that grips, with Will Smith on amazing form.
Recommended viewing :]