Continuing improvement from Smith, but the film fails to fully exploit its potential

Rating: 6/10 (28 December 2007)

Will Smith is quite the man. It seems like every movie he stars in is destined to reap enormous financial rewards in the US and outside the US, regardless of whether it's good or not. As such, I imagine that he has the luxury to pick and choose his projects. When I heard that this film would be made yet again. A previous incarnation, The Omega Man, with which this film shares more than the original novel exists. I've also heard that there an even older film adaptation, but know little of it, except that The Omega Man has taken some cues from it.
As it stands in this film, the story was clearly made more shiny for the clean-scrubbed character that Smith usually plays. Not that Neville in this film doesn't have issues, but that he's not nearly as complex as the novel, or even previous incarnations. Most of the film plays as a Cast Away meets 28 Days Later.... In fact, in some ways, Legend is more an American successor to 28 Days Later, just with less humans and zombies.
Thanks to the overall simplification of the story, I Am Legend actually turns out to be quite a different piece from the novel it's based on, focusing more on what happens to people that are stuck alone, as well as with disillusionment from years of failure and loss. Sometimes this simplification comes at the cost of believability, as some of Neville's flashbacks to before the loss suffer from contrived melodrama in order to keep some it's "cleanness".
Although this weakens the story considerably, the movie still provides Smith a place to show the growth of his acting, as he's been slowly, but steadily, improving since his big box office debut in Bad Boys (and his oft-forgotten work in Six Degrees of Separation). Although he still plays a version of Will Smith, he's grown the ability to convey contrary messages and personal irony just through variations in his charisma, swagger and vulnerability. The rest of the film is technically sound, although the "infected" fail to impress as they appear like a poor cross between the titular character from The Mummy and the maddened rage zombies from 28 Days Later... It's unfortunate that the science-fiction vampires from the book never made it out.
I Am Legend is essentially another Will Smith blockbuster film, with much in common with Smith's previous I, Robot in that it stands a watered down adaptation of a complex work, fit into Smith's image and with complexity removed for easy consumption by the masses. While it might be entertaining enough for an in theater romp, it fails to deliver the substance that the source material contains and remains a passing affair. I don't think anyone will really hate this movie except fanboys (and fangirls) of the novel. Most will be temporally entertained and move on (although the film does have something to say, albeit how little a voice it speaks with, about the role of hope in sustaining humanity). Not essential. Not necessary. At the same time, not bad either. Here's to hoping that Hancock is better. 6/10.