Je suis une légende

If I could sum this movie up in one sentence, it would be this: Go Will. Will Smith is the driving force of I Am Legend. His performance as Dr. Robert Neville is impeccable. Living in a deserted NY city, his acting is reminiscent of Tom Hanks in Cast Away, but instead of a volleyball, he has mannequins and a faithful German Shepard named Sam. His basement, a retro-fitted, high-tech lab to find a cure for the disease that has turned the population of the entire planet into mutant, zombie-like, hive mind, blood-thirsty monsters, and, for some reason, Robert is immune. His days, spent hunting. His nights, sleeping with a high-powered rifle and hoping that the mutants don't find him. Keeping the movie flowing are well placed flashbacks that show what happened to Robert's family and why he is there. The movie falters a bit at the end, maybe at the last 5 minutes, but it doesn't ruin the plot or acting put forth. Containing wonderful cinematography and CG, I Am Legend is a spectacular film that I will be seeing again! PS - Shout out to my NY National Guardsmen in this film! Great job!

Two thirds of this film is wonderful entertainment, both in scope and story telling, and in Will Smith we have a cracking central performance that carries the film with consummate ease, sadly the final third undoes all the great promise and tension building that had gone before it.

After a genetic engineered cancer curing virus wipes out practically all of mankind, Robert Neville {Will Smith} appears to be the sole surviving human on earth, the only company he has is the family dog and an army of virus infected mutants that can only come out in the dark. That Neville is a former scientist who is immune to the deadly strain is a bonus as it means he can work on a potential cure.

Yes it's daft, and yes it's contrived, but there sure is a lot of good stuff to enjoy before the films major failing surfaces. Firstly is Will Smith's performance, there is no doubting he is a major star these days, but here he also cements his standing as a bona fide A lister of note. He layers the performance so well, his character not only has to deal with the heavy threat of being killed by the mutants at night, he also has to fight his own isolation, mans inherent need for companionship is a tortured thing when you appear to be the sole beneficiary of gods green earth.

Secondly the setting of a barren desolate New York is eerily staggering, overgrown with foliage and stalked by lions searching for food, it really is a big screen must to embrace the scope of it. Thirdly the mutants themselves are scary enough, but they honestly would have been better served being played by human actors rather than the CGI used that brings very mixed results, and fourthly the tension building is pitch perfect, the makers manage to have you on the edge of your seat gasping for a solution to this cracking story unfolding, but then...

They throw it all away by a rushed ending that had me positively seething, a quick turn of events should be a prelude to a fully fleshed out finale but instead we get a quick wham bam, oh The End. It leaves a bitter taste in the mouth on leaving the cinema and frankly the audience deserves better, and in fact so does Will Smith, did they run out of money? Well that I don't know, but what I do know is that we so nearly had a genre classic to look fondly on for years to come, shame that. 6.5/10

Footnote: Having just watched the alternate version that is readily available on disc formats, I have to say that as weak and as frustrating as the theatrical ending is, the alternate ending is far worse, trite and totally misplaced, they chose the better ending of the two for sure.

I am aware of the fact that this 2007 blockbuster is a remake of a remake. It's a remake of "The Omega Man", which is a remake of "The Last Man on Earth". All three films are adaptations of the novel, "I Am Legend", by Richard Matheson. I haven't seen the previous two versions, but definitely intend to. However, for now, since I've just seen this 2007 version of "I Am Legend", and haven't seen the rest, I'll just have to judge it strictly as a movie, not how it compares to the previous two, or the book. So, while this particular version of the story seems to be polarizing, I was definitely impressed.

In 2012, three years after a genetically modified virus which was supposed to cure cancer ended up wiping out most of the world's population, a scientist named Robert Neville, immune to this virus, appears to be the only uninfected human left in New York City, maybe even the world, and his only companion is his dog, Sam! Neville does research in his basement laboratory to try and find a cure for the virus, and regularly sends out radio messages, calling for other survivors to come and meet him, if there are any out there, but so far, this has not worked. Eventually, the scientist discovers people in New York who have not been killed by the virus, but have been mutated by it, and as a result, they have become dangerous monsters! Worse still, there are many of them in the city, and Neville is still waiting to see another uninfected human, so he is grossly outnumbered!

This film is slow-paced around the beginning, but this works well, starting with the introduction to the virus which was yet to fail, and going from there to views of a deserted New York, which are reasonably intriguing. Some scenes may be a bit tedious, such as Robert Neville looking through the dark building before finding the mutants, and the camera is sometimes a bit unsteady, but to make up for the flaws, there's quite a bit of tension (which includes scenes with the mutated, zombie-like humans and they're chases and attacks, even though I'm sure we've seen scenes like that before in movies), as well as some poignant moments, with Neville and his loneliness. Also, for Bob Marley fans, the main character is a big fan of his, and at one point, he talks about Marley and his philosophies. As someone who listens to his music and has read a lot about his short life, this part definitely touched me, and it obviously isn't featured in the previous two adaptations, as they were both made before Marley became an international superstar.

Yes, this film has its flaws, and seems to have gotten a lot of positive feedback as well as negative, but personally, I have to give it a positive review. While not quite a masterpiece, I still found it to be a memorable sci-fi/horror film, with a fair amount of suspense, action, and poignancy. Once again, I don't know how it compares to the book or the previous two adaptations of it, and clearly, it seems to be widely considered inferior to those, but while that may be true, I cannot join the naysayers on this one. If you see this version of "I Am Legend", I guess you could easily end up on either side, but if you want to see a combination of sci-fi, horror, and drama, and you're a Will Smith fan, I think it's worth a try, and yes, it just MIGHT help a BIT if you're a Bob Marley fan.

Am Legend is an action thriller movie directed by Francis Lawrence and stars Will Smith, Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan and Dash Mihok in the lead roles.

The movie is based on a scientist Robert Neville played by Will Smith who is the last human survivor after majority of mankind is wiped dur to a lethal virus.

The movie should be remembered as one of the best acting by Will Smith as he was alone character in majority of the movie. He has played the role of a scientist with perfection.

Screenplay is good but gets little slow and boring in between. Plot is fresh and has executed nicely. Location setup is nice. The only drawback is climax as climax could've been executed much better.

A nice movie backed by strong acting by Will Smith

The legendary book comes to life, in this Francis Lawrence adaption. A perfect decision in casting Will Smith as the main protagonist greatly improves the film. The movie's visuals are pretty good even though some people may say otherwise. All in all, it's a great adaption of a terrific novel.