I am Legend

The cure for cancer has been found. Three years later Robert Neville (Will Smith) is the only person left living in New York City. It turns out that the cure didn't work out as well as they had hoped. Instead of curing people it has wiped out a huge chunk of the population. Those who didn't die or weren't immune, like Neville, have turned into vampiric-zombie like creatures, that hide from the sunlight and feed on flesh.

Every night he locks himself up in his house, safe from the Infected, and everyday he searches for a cure, while investigating a little more of the city and hunting deer, while hoping someone hears the message he broadcasts everyday. One morning he discovers that one of his test rats is doing better, not as blood thirsty (or as dead) as the other rats. So he jumps at the opportunity and decides to test it on a human subject.  He sets a trap and catches one of the creatures, which pisses off what I am assuming to be the Alpha Male of the nest.  The Alpha Male (Dash Mihok) wants revenge and is just about to kill Neville but that is when Anna (Alice Braga) shows up to save him. They manage to get back to his house right about day break.

She and a young boy, Ethan (Charlie Tahan) were survivors that were traveling to a survivor's camp when they heard his message and came to New York. Anna wants the three of them to go together, but Neville flat out refuses, saying that there is no camp, but Anna doesn't believe him. She says there must be one and they should find it.  The argument is put on hold as it becomes nightfall and the Infected decide to attack the house.  They break in and the three of them are forced down into his lab, where we see that the cure is actually working.  Since convincing the infected to stop their attack seems out of the question,  Neville does the next best thing, he gives a vial of the cured blood to Anna and stuffs her and Ethan into a coal chute and then blows up the entire lab, the Infected and himself. Anna and Ethan then leave and make their way to the camp and give the vial to the first guy they see. Yay! the world is saved!

Before I went to go see this movie one of my friends summed it up very efficiently and adequately. She said that the scary parts of the movie were scary, and the sad parts were sad, the rest of the movie, though was just sort of 'blah'. I agree with my friend. There was one scene that was truly scary that had me almost hiding behind my coat with fear (I said almost, I didn't actually hide behind my coat).  There was one sad part that I refuse to talk about that had me choked up, but the rest of the movie was watching Neville trying to find a cure or just hanging out in the city talking to mannequins (he does actually do that). It was at that point where I feared for his sanity.

I am not a huge fan of Will Smith, but he did an excellent job in this film. For some strange reason, no matter what film I see him in all of his characters have the same feel to me. He's always the hero. I think he need to take on a role of a villain to change things up a bit.  

I was a little disappointed with the end of the film.  Unlike some people, who were a little angry at the heroic end to Mr. Smith, I hated how everything was brought together by fate. There was a religious part in the movie that was unnecessary. Neville who stated flatly that there was no God, saw the light right before he gave up his life to save the world. Blah! It feels like such a cop out. There must have been a different way to go about ending the movie with everything being God's will.  

I just have a few random questions: what happens during the winter? There's like less than eight hours of sunlight and snow galore. Do the Infected hibernate? Anyway, second question: what happened to his Mustang? He was using it to hunt deer and then we never see it again. Very sad. And thirdly: shouldn't that vial of blood have been refrigerated? Is it still viable after spending endless hours in the car?

Grade: 7.5/10