I Am Legend

Josh and I went to see the premiere of I Am Legend starring Will Smith.

It was an entertaining movie about the last man on earth. There certainly were times of terror and suspense. The movie started off slow, but I liked the way they portrayed an abandoned New York City. Amazingly, most of the abandoned cars were neatly parked on the side and not blocking the road. Ford must have been a big sponsor of the movie, because they sure did show a lot of their cars.

I think that Will Smith is way over-rated, but I think this was one of his better performances. He did a good job of showing sadness and loneliness of being the last living person in New York. However, there were some mixed performances that were corny to me. Perhaps they rushed the part about Will Smith losing his social skills. He seemed to do a fine job of talking to himself and his German Shepherd, but in the scene where he watches Shrek with the boy, he acted like a buffoon mimicking the cartoon characters.

The movie starts off with Emma Thompson saying she found the cure to cancer. Then, apparently, the cure turned out to be a virus that turned everyone into zombie monsters. Didn't we see this in 28 Days Later and in Resident Evil Apocalypse? Oh well, I guess people just love zombies. Frankly, I'm sick of them.

Smith is an army scientist who tries to find the cure to the rage virus. He wanders alone in New York City during the day and hides in his house at night when the zombies come out. The zombies are allergic to the sun like me. I have a bad case of chronic prickly heat.

After his dog dies after getting bitten by a zombie dog, Will chokes his beloved friend to death. Then, he gets rejected by a mannequin at the video store where he gets his DVDs. He wants to die, but is later rescued by a mom and her little reticent boy. Will says that there is no god, but the mom says that god told her to go to Vermont where there is a survivor colony. He sees a butterfly tattoo on her neck and remembers what his dead daughter said about looking at the butterfly. Maybe there is a god. Before he can say hallelujah, he is attacked by zombies. A few seconds before the attack, he finds the cure to the disease and gives it to the mom. She later tells the story of his deeds. That is his legend.

Aside from the weird grammatically incorrect title, this story could have really been told in 5 minutes. Still the journey was fun.

My score: C, 74

The Highs: Entertaining, good performance by the Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

The Lows: Derivative storyline, dumb looking zombies, simple plot, pointless and meaningless story.

The Verdict: The best Will Smith yet...which isn't saying much.