Let me be honest, I wouldn't consider myself a Will Smith fan, but somehow I end up sitting in a theater watching his films. Typically, with a Will Smith film I know what I'm going to get -- a cocky, somewhat humorous guy on a mission to save the day (or the world). I wish I could say "I Am Legend" is different; I won't get my wish, but I will say that the theme and tone are a little outside of the box for Will Smith. (Note that I said "a little".)
Take Will's Smith's character from "Independence Day" and age him a bit, then throw in his character from "I, Robot" and you've got Col. Robert Neville, his character in "I Am Legend." (And, for the record, let me say that I am thankful that his characters from "Wild, Wild West" and "Men In Black" do not get mixed into this performance.) The style of "I Am Legend" is similar to "Children Of Men" but infinitely more colorful (here in America we visually like warmer, reddish and yellow tones, whereas in Britain there is a tendency toward a dreary, blue cast). Basically, though, the message is alike in the two films: it's up to one person to save the human race (as we know it) from disappearing from the face of the planet. In "Children Of Men" in the very near future no more babies are born to humans due to... well, we never really learn, but that film makes a strong point that globalization has something to do with it. In "I Am Legend" in the very near future a definitive cure for cancer has an unpleasant side-effect of turning those cured into light-poisoned, cannibalistic, zombie-like mutants with nasty, big, pointy teeth -- I guess they should have read that small print on the cancer medicine's commercial. Later the disease becomes airborne, and our hero Lt. Col. Robert Neville, who somehow has an immunity to the disease, sets up a lab in New York City which is ground zero for the outbreak (so, I guess that means they only tried to cure New Yorkers of cancer first) and tries to use his own blood to find a cure to reverse the effects of the ill-fated cancer cure. Meanwhile, as far as Neville knows, the rest of the world has been affected by the mutant virus and everyone has either been transformed into human eating creatures of the night or have been eaten by those same creatures. (Human beef, it's what's for dinner!) Still, Neville (and his dog, Sam) searches for a cure while slowly going crazy. He spends his days hunting deer and other animals (obviously escapees from the Bronz Zoo), renting movies from his neighborhood video store populated by mannequins, and hanging out at the pier (having daily broadcast a message on AM radio that he is there in the event that someone else has survived -- I guess by using AM he expected Rush Limbaugh fans or sports radio callers to have survived). He spends his nights injecting lab rats and mutants with varying chemical adaptations of his blood and apparently watching a lot of "Shrek". Throughout the whole story, Neville comments that the mutants have degraded to no longer having human-like actions and that they have devolved into pure animals. Maybe before the end of the story he came to realize that at least one (or more) of the mutants were exhibiting human feelings of deception, inventiveness, and physical attachment (of the love variety, not just the teeth buried three inches into the shoulder kind).
I'm not really sure I would or would not recommend this film. If this were a recipe, it would be made of equal parts "Children Of Men" and "28 Days Later", spiced with the flavor of "I, Robot" and slow cooked in a pot of "The Andromeda Strain." If you like the taste of "Children Of Men" you will be probably be left feeling hungry for the lack of moral lessons in "I Am Legend" -- that is, other than man is to blame for man's downfall (well, excuse us for trying to cure cancer!).
In the end, I liked the movie. Don't expect a fast-moving thriller or a slow-moving sleeper, as this movie is somewhere in between. And, don't expect great CGI effects... while some effects are impressive and others not noticeable as CGI (which is the goal, isn't it), some of the mutants and animals are obviously computer-generated. Do expect a chiseled Will Smith whose acting has become almost as well-sculpted as his body. (I know that sounded homosexual of me, but really, I'm not... not that there is anything wrong with that.) Unless you are a Will Smith fan, I think you can wait for this one to come out on video.
I give it a 7 out of 10.
