I Am Legend is about military scientist Robert Neville (Will Smith) who is the lone uninfected survivor of a man made plague in the middle of Manhattan. His mission is to develop a cure and end the catastrophe that man has brought upon himself, but he's not alone in NYC- the infected turn into hairless, cannibalistic night prowlers who can not come out in the daylight. The first thing that you realize when watching I Am Legend is how good Will Smith is in it. Yes, he does things that I call Smithisms, but overall he's very good and very solid in the role of Robert Neville. The story is well presented and tightly packaged: what could have been a three hours opus to man's mistakes is trimmed into a sleek action piece that still gives you a little bit of a message.
The one thing that drags the film down are the special effects. Now before I bash them I have to say that the effects of a Manhattan that's been deserted for three years are simply amazing. It's the infected that look like bad renders from a Playstation 2 game. They pull you out of the film and one has to wonder if conventional make-up with CGI touch-ups would have been better.
I will warn you that there are two endings for I Am Legend and unlike most films each ending is very different. After seeing both this is probably the first time that I can say that I don't really like one over the other. Both have their good points and bad. Overall the film is a nice action/psychological/thriller/drama that pulls you into a realistic post apocalyptic world that could be a few years away.
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