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 enlarge | Director: Francis Lawrence
Actors: Will Smith, Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith
Studio: Warner Bros.
Category: Movie
This item is no longer available
Rating:  625 reviews
Sales Rank: 2601
Genre: Science Fiction - Action
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: Video On Demand
Running Time: 101
ASIN: B0017XD3OY
Theatrical Release Date: December 14, 2007
Release Date: October 24, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
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 A Suspensful Thriller December 17, 2007
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
I have read several stories by Richard Matheson but not I Am Legend, so I do not have any expectations but I can unequivocally say that a book can never be transitioned to the screen as written; telling a visual story is far different from developing a story on the printed page. For my wife and me I Am Legend is a terrific thriller that does not let up. Will Smith gives an excellent performance as Robert Neville who decides to remain behind as Manhattan is cut off from the rest of the world to battle a man-made virus. The emotion level that he reaches in his portrayal beautifully conveys the commitment of his character to find a cure that will save those infected by the virus. His relationship and devotion to Sam the German Shepard is a joy to watch and becomes distressing for us when Sam succumbs to the virus.
Although other reviewers found the film slow I liked the pacing. First we learn what it is like being the last human on Manhattan by observing Robert Neville performing his everyday chores and activities. We get to know him. Flashbacks tell the story of Neville's family and their escape from New York into the supposedly safe are beyond. He has been on his own, alone except for Sam, for three years, and it is the emotional toll, his desperation for someone to talk with, that Will Smith makes so convincing. He does not meet another human being until the last quarter of the film when Anna saves him from the infected. When he finally meets Anna, Neville finds it a bit hard to communicate right away and finds her optimism that anyone has survived to be doubtful.
The supporting cast includes Will Smith's daughter, Willow, and Salli Richardson as Neville's wife, very brief but nicely played roles. Although I have seen several virus/zombie films like 28 Days Later and the Dead series by Romero I did find the creatures in this film rather creepy. The scene where Sam follows a deer into a building held a lot of suspense for me. The creatures do look a bit unreal sometimes and I took them all to be CGI generated until I learned that someone actually played the "Alpha-Male" that attempts to capture Neville. There are some things about the film that do stretch the imagination a little. My wife was wondering how destroying the bridges into Manhattan would stop people from getting off the island: couldn't someone build a raft or simply swim. Was Anna on Manhattan the entire time or did she travel to the island? There are a few questions like this that are not essential to the story but make one wonder, and require a book to answer all of the sub-plots.
I Am Legend is a film that requires more than one viewing to take in marvelous design of a New York being taken over by nature and I think one would be better able to see all of the facets in Will Smith's performance.
 Could have been much better. December 17, 2007
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
This could have been a much more intense action movie.
We see Will Smith with these huge weapons in his hands,
but half the time of the movie all he did was carry it.
The idea was amazing, but the movie was too depressing.
The acting was superb, no doubt about that!
It's just the overall writing of the screenplay that lagged a bit.
ANOTHER GREAT ADDITION TO LAST MAN ON EARTH TYPE MOVIES December 17, 2007
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
I Am legend starring Will Smith,Alice Braga and Dash Milhok,and of course sammantha the dog.Directed by francis lawrence.based loosely from the 1954 novel i am legend by richard matheson.This is the 3rd entry .First lets begin with 1964's vincent price THE LAST MAN ON EARTH that takes place in italy(trying to make it look like los angeles). Which is an excellent movie it was also loosely based on the novel but yet very close to it,although primitive for its time it still remains vincent price's admired performance.Then in 1971 saw the release of charlton hestons"s THE OMEGA MAN which takes place in los angeles.where as also based loosely on the novel,still the omega man is an outstanding last man on earth type movie.I have just seen I AM LEGEND on opening day december 14th since i have read the original novel by matheson and seeing both earlier movies,i am legend is outstanding just like the earlier 1964 and 1971 visions of the last man on earth.Will Smith plays a scientist robert neville who tries to find a cure living in the ruins and deserted new york city which by the way is truly the star of the film.Absolutely stunning images of an empty new york locations.Although the i am legend movie is another based loosely on the novel it still gives the impact we all want to see in a genre of this type .This time we see our last man has a friend called sam short for samantha a german shepard that suprisinly you will love too as the movie progresses.The enemy is the mutants or as neville calls them the infected.Most of the movie is centered on neville and his dog living day to day which the movie begins three years later after the man made virus destroyed the population.The movie takes place in the year 2012,during the course of the movie we get to see his wife and daughter in flashbacks three years back and how samantha the dog got together with neville .By this time he has turned his home into a fortress with a laboratory in the basement.The movie has its moments of scares and the infected are more violent and powerful in this version.The infected are cgi effects,although im not a fan of cgi effects because of obvious reasons but in my opinion it works in this film .WilL Smith does a fine performance giving us the vision of a man trying to cope with loneliness.This movie does have a very disturbing scene pertaining to the dog.All in all the movie works well giving us the entertainment of this great story line what it would be like to be the last man on earth, an honest approach of our human nature very few movies have nowadays.A great addition to the last man on earth and the omega man....
Better than the Book and Prior Movies! December 17, 2007
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
The special effects of this movie are amazing and Will Smith puts in the performance of his career as Robert Nevell, a survivor of a virus who drives around Manhattan shooting at deer and visiting the video store by day. At night, he and his dog are locked in their apartment while crazed creatures (a la Dawn of the Dead) run amok outside.
The movie never gets boring and there are several bone chilling scarry parts. Smith takes Nevell's character way beyond Matheson's novelette and surely beyond Vincent Price's or Charleton Heston's earlier renditions.
 Three Times A "Legend" December 16, 2007
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
Richard Matheson's 1954 novel "I Am Legend" is universally, and rightly, considered a touchstone in modern horror and science fiction literature. Its story of one man's fight for survival in a world of undead caused by a horrific plague has been the offspring for countless cinematic variations (e.g., NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and 28 DAYS LATER), and two overt cinematic adaptations--1964's THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (with Vincent Price); and 1971's THE OMEGA MAN (with Charlton Heston). And now, in our time, it is Will Smith's turn to take up the role of humankind's last best hope in this third adaptation of Matheson's book, using its original title this time.
Smith stars as Robert Neville, a virologist who had, in the year 2009, played a pivotal role in the development of a viral cure for cancer that instead turned into a violent plague that decimated the world. Now, in the year 2012, he roams the deserted streets of the Big Apple with his trusted dog Samantha, foraging for supplies, sending out radio calls into the void in the off-chance that there are real survivors out there--and getting back to his townhouse before nightfall. For it is nightfall that the Dark Seekers, those plague survivors who have turned into horrible mutants, come out to make his life a living hell.
Smith's rationale for staying alive amidst all this horror is the development of a vaccine that can reverse the spread of the virus--a vaccine that he tries on Dark Seekers that he captures. It also helps him maintain his sanity, as he has terrible flashbacks to the beginnings of the plague. Once he encounters a totally normal woman (Alice Braga) who has survived in a colony in Vermont, he sees a ray of hope for humanity. But will he be able to make the promise he made to himself years before come true?
It has to be said that, much like the two other films based on it, I AM LEGEND strays significantly from its source material (the monsters in the book are vampires, and the setting is Los Angeles, not New York). Indeed, this third version takes its cue as much from the John Corrington/Joyce Corrington screenplay of THE OMEGA MAN as it does from Matheson's book, particularly in Smith's attempt to develop a cure for the plague. Also, the Dark Seekers, as they are conceived, look a little too much like what they really are, namely CGI creations, as opposed to the pale vampires of THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, or the Manson-like mutant cult of THE OMEGA MAN.
All the same however, I AM LEGEND works well enough because Smith, who holds the screen all by himself for three-fourths of its running time, is able to convince us of his character's situation--concern; panic; horror; and much more. Though some of the special effects are a tad bit excessive on occasion, director Francis Lawrence and screenwriters Akiva Goldsman and Mark Protosevitch manage to conjure up enought suspenseful situations to make this enterprise more than tolerable, and on many occasions very frightening.
It may be that Matheson's book is unfilmable the way Matheson wrote it, what with Hollywood's concern for thrills and chills at the expense of the novel's psychological and scientific horror. But Smith's performance and the scenes of a completely deserted Big Apple are more than enough to paper over the flaws, and make I AM LEGEND a very good cross of horror and science fiction the likes of which have not really been seen in Hollywood for quite some time.
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