Jeff Otto

Tory Shulman checks out I Am Legend.-The long-delayed project finally comes to theaters on the back of Box Office champion Will Smith. Will Smith  should get 90 percent of the box office take for I Am Legend . While the movie is not bad per se, it would be little more than mediocre without the Fresh Prince. I Am Legend had become an almost legendary (pardon the pun) project in development over at Warner Bros. for more than a decade. The list of A-listers attached included The Governator, Tom Cruise ,  Michael Douglas and directors Ridley Scott ,  Michael Bay and Rob Bowman . And now that I’ve seen the film, I can say that, as far as casting goes, Ah-nold, Cruise and Douglas never stood a chance as the character of Robert Neville, who spends nearly two-thirds of the film accompanied by nothing more than his trusty German Shepherd Sam, some mannequins and the unwanted company of the remaining vampire-like infected. Imagining the end result with Arnold, in particular, illicits little more than giggles. For those who don’t already know the story, here’s the quick version: A cure for cancer goes horribly wrong, creating an infection that turns people into mindless, vampire-like creatures. Will Smith is Robert Neville, a military scientist who assumes himself to be the last uninfected human on Earth. He spends his days hunting for food and trolling the ruins of Manhattan for items that may aid his quest to find a cure for the infected. The fourth filmatic adaptation of Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel “I Am Legend,” this take will probably go down as the best, but it’s got a fair share of problems. Although director  Francis Lawrence ( Constantine ) does a competent job as director, the movie would nearly disintegrate without its star. On one side, the visuals of New York City after the apocalypse are exceptional and very memorable. But they are marred by some extremely shoddy CG effects such as lions and deer that look like they were pasted in over a blue screen. Seriously, didn’t this movie cost a ton of cash? There are major plot holes where you almost feel as if a long, important scenes are missing. The monsters (the infected) are basically vampires. They are decent looking, but there isn’t a whole lot of originality in their look. Veiny, sharp-toothed, quick-moving, snarling beasties that breathe quickly and leap through the air to attack. They also seem to be impervious to pain in some way, but that (like so much else) is never fully explained. And yet, with all of that said, the movie remains consistently entertaining from start to finish. And the sole reason is Will Smith. Smith pulls off what so few actors have, keeping audiences engaged in his character’s plight with no one to play off of. His performance is layered and smart, a combination rarely witnessed in this type of genre project. His likability carries some major weight here as well. Where Lawrence does excel is in the relentless nature of I Am Legend . Aided by Smith’s highly sympathetic portrayal, audiences are kept on the edge of their seats awaiting the next jump. Sure, some of the scares are a bit cheap, but the next one is generally coming at you so quickly that you don’t really mind. All in all, I Am Legend is a fun movie. It’s a popcorn thriller providing some alternative fare for genre fans during the drama-heavy awards season. With  AVP2 hitting on Christmas Day, fanboys might have their best holiday season at the cinema yet. So while Will Smith might not actually get the lion’s share of  I Am Legend profits, if the movie opens well (and it should) he will prove his box office clout once more, quite likely the biggest box office presence on the planet at this point. He’s the MVP of the project without a doubt because, besides the box office tied to his name, Smith elevates a mediocre, forgettable genre movie to an entertaining crowd pleaser.

francis lawrence, will smith, alice braga, dash mihok, charlie tahan, salli richardson, willow smith, darrell foster, april grace, joanna numata, samuel glen, james mccauley, marin ireland, akiva goldsman, james lassiter, david heyman, neil moritz, michael tadross, erwin stoff, dana goldberg, bruce berman,