I remember just after 'I Am Legend' (2007) came out I watched it quite a lot. I don't actually remember if I really like it or not, but I do remember sitting down for repeated viewings and how it was the talk of the town at school when it was first released. I also remember that I always found the last 30 minutes a little boring. And now we arrive in the year 2020, thirteen years after the films release and probably the same amount of years since I last saw it, has my opinion of the film changed? Nah, not really. The film follows Robert Neville (Will Smith), the last surviving man on earth after a new cure for cancer turned all other humans into vampire like creatures. Accompanied by his dog, Samantha, he spends his days searching an abandoned New York for food, attempting to capture one of these creatures so he can use them to find a cure, and sending out radio messages in the hope that another human may still be alive.
This is a film that struggled to keep my attention for good chunks of it. The opening scene where, through a news report, we are told about this cure for cancer we are immediately thrown into an abandoned and overgrown New York city. Immediately I am in, mostly the visulas of it all. I think the opening scene of this film looks great and is visually really engaging, even if it is a bit of a failed attempt at an exciting action scene. But it looks great, even years after the fact. The CGI of the overgrowth and plant life looks real for the most part, and in this opening scene they use this overgrowth to create some great visuals. Unfortunately, the visual interest in the film wains quite quickly after this opening scene. There are some nice moments of cinematography, but it is mostly a film of visulas that we have seen in other films. The CGI on the creatures is also not stellar. At the time of its release I don't remember thinking it looked bad, but it has not aged all that well. This becomes an issue towards the end of the film when the creatures are shown more and more, and it is an issue which is exacerbated by the boring design of the creatures. Like the visuals, the narrative didn't manage to hold my attention for too long either. It started off quite interesting when we are following Will Smith and seeing him interact with the world. But it doesn't manage to keep the pace up and I soon find myself checking how long I had left. There are a couple decent action scenes thrown in, but nothing to exciting, and by the time the last 20 minutes rolled around I had almost lost complete interest.
There is one major positive throughout the film though, and that is the performance of Will Smith. He is brilliant throughout this film, especially as he is the only human actor in 90% of the scenes. I ay human actor because he is alongside his dog Samantha, played by two dogs, Abbey and Kona. These dogs and there trainers absolutely deserve shout outs as well because they do brilliant jobs in the film. But this is Smith's film and he carries it really well for the mst part and manages to keep the film mostly interesting even when it starts to lull. He pulls off the action hero vibes that the character needs in the film, but also shows real emotion in the film. when he needs to act scared he pulls it off, when he needs to be witty and charming he pulls it off, and when he needs to shed some tears he pulls it off. There is one scene in particular where Smith's acting hammers home the emotion of the scene. I won't spoil it, but if you have seen the film you know exactly which scene I am talking about.
'I Am Legend' is a film that is pretty much the definition of fine. There is no particular aspect of the film that is massively exciting or interesting, but it there is also enough here for it to not be a total waste of time. It is also a film that is helped by a really good performance from Will Smith, and I feel that if it was not for this performance the film would be more boring than anything else. I would recommend it overall, although in doing so I should mention there are two versions of this film. Both version are exactly the same with different endings. The version I watched is widely considered the worse ending, but I don't think the other ending is all that great either. It is definitely a better concept for an ending, but its execution is poor. So I'd recommend either version. In the end it really doesn't matter.