I Am Legend Review

Will Smith is the biggest movie star in the world right now. At this point, he could sign on to a movie with Lindsay Lohan and people would go.

Being the biggest movie star in the world is nice, but Smith is also one of a handful of actors who are compelling enough to hold your attention when they're on screen by themselves.

That trait serves him well in his latest project, the third screen adaptation of Robert Matheson's novel, "I Am Legend."

Smith stars as military doctor Robert Neville, the last man on Earth after a supposed cure for cancer wipes out the great majority of the human race and turns the rest into bloodthirsty, dark-seeking creatures. Neville, who is immune to the virus, spends most of his time hunting with his pal Sam the dog (in a breakout performance) and fruitlessly trying to cure the virus.

In fact, it's the early scenes with Neville navigating a completely abandoned New York City (except for the occasional wild animals that must've escaped from the Bronx zoo) that are the film's most effective. (bonus points for the fact that it makes you audibly wonder "how'd they do that?")

Smith does some of the strongest acting of his career (outside of his two Oscar-nominated performances, of course) as his character converses with mannequins and struggles to maintain his sanity, while remaining charismatic and someone we root for.

Director Francis Lawrence does a very nice job early on of establishing Neville's (relatively comfortable) existence and also suggesting how such monotony might drive a man crazy. He also does a nice job early on of rendering any dark alley or building in New York city as the scariest place in the world mostly by not showing us all that much. Lawrence and Smith make Neville's fear palpable.

That is until someone tapped the director and star on the shoulder and reminded them that they were making more of a kickass blockbuster and less of a "last man on Earth" character study and the action predictably amps up.

An early sequence with Neville running into a dark building after Sam is effective, but the action sequences toward the end of the film devolved into a predictable shoot-em up. Also, once the monsters are revealed, it's kind of a letdown for me. In my opinion, they were way too athletic and superhuman to the point that they actually looked and acted like the robots in "I, Robot" (which is NOT a compliment).

Basically, I liked them a lot better and they were more effective when I (and Will Smith's character) couldn't really see them.

In fact, without giving too much away, this movie pretty much screws the pooch in its last 25 minutes with a couple of unnecessary and boring additions and a somewhat disappointing and oddly anti-climactic ending.

Still, this one is well worth the price because it's a mostly-smart popcorn flick that has something else going for it: the biggest movie star in the world near the top of his game.

I Am Legend...B