I Am Legend

I Am Legend (Rent) Robert Neville (Will Smith) is a brilliant scientist, but even he could not contain the terrible virus that was unstoppable, incurable...and manmade. I Am Legend (Buy)

CRITIC REVIEW

A lot of the reviews of I Am Legend are not about the story or the performances but about the special effects. The film reportedly cost more than $150 million to make, largely due to the intricate, post-apocalyptic effects scenes. Writes Carina Chocano in the Los Angeles Times: "The first third of the movie is a high-octane joy ride through post-apocalyptic Manhattan, and you can't stop asking yourself how they did it. How did they do it? Endless swaths of Fifth Avenue are cleared out and rendered feral, with grass poking through the concrete and herds of deer galloping through the canyons." Roger Ebert begins his review in the Chicago Sun Times this way: "The opening scenes of I Am Legend have special effects so good that they just about compensate for some later special effects that are dicey." Especially dicey, it seems, is the creation of the film's zombies. Claudia Puig in USA Today comments: "The rampaging zombies don't look at all convincing. Instead, they look like escapees from a second-rate video game." Desson Williams in the Washington Post agrees. "They are, quite simply, too superhuman," he writes. "They move too fast and perfectly. They belong in a video game, but not a big movie." Will Smith gets numerous kudos for essentially playing the only character in the movie. (He is after all, the last man on Earth.) "There are not many performers who can make themselves interesting in isolation, without human supporting players," A.O. Scott observes in the New York Times. "But it is the charismatic force of [Smith's] personality that makes his character's radical solitude scary and fascinating, as well as strangely appealing."