I AM LEGEND

I AM LEGEND WAS NOT LEGENDARY, BUT BETTER THAN EXPECTED "I can help. I can save you. I can save everybody. " as spoken by Robert Neville (Will Smith) and that's the movie in a nutshell. We are in the future, 2012, and a cure for cancer has been announced and it is a downward spiral from there. Neville is a scientist, immune to those who received the "cure for cancer" three years earlier, which turned into a deadly virus that makes you avoid the daylight (zombies only come out at night, rule #26 of movie plots), do bad things and hurt people. They like the dark, so we watch Neville and his dog Sam check for people, infected or not, and all the other stuff solitary scientists do. Note to self: Immediately turn off DVD when character is shown to have a loyal dog or cat. Aside from his work, he tries to find relief from the stress in comical ways. It isn't until the mid-point of the movie where 1) We learn about where his wife and daughter went during the evacuation of Manhattan, which explains his drive to find a cure and 2) We get a glimpse inside his mind (and outside, this guy is ripped!) where the stress of being alone the whole never ending search for the vaccine spits in his face each day, as both a man and a scientist. The visual effects in this film are stunning. Much like his buddy Tom Cruise in Vanilla Sky, the normally busy and lively streets are abandoned and eerily quiet. The plot pushed pretty hard at being any kind of believable, but it was still entertaining. Albeit the end of the film was a little too cornball/sappy, but overall Smith gave an outstanding performance. I ponder if Smith was too big an actor for this role. Then the movie could have tanked and be added to the Lohan hall of fame. But it didn't. They went in with a accomplished, commercial actor who was better than the script allowed and hoped for a smash hit. No need to place the blame. It was an interesting film, once it got going, not great, but absolutely much better than I previously thought.

PICK: Entertaining premise and strong performance by Will Smith.