I Am Legend (2007)

Director: Francis Lawrence

Cast: Will Smith as Robert Neville, Alice Braga as Anna, Charlie Tahan as Ethan, Salli Richardson-Whitfield as Zoe Neville (as Salli Richardson), Willow Smith as Marley Neville, Darrell Foster as Mike - Military Escort, April Grace as TV Personality, Dash Mihok as Alpha Male, Joanna Numata as Alpha Female, Abbey as Sam, Kona as Sam, Samuel Glen as Military Driver - Jay, James Michael McCauley as Male Evacuee (as James McCauley), Marin Ireland as Woman Evacuee, Pedro Mojica as Sergeant

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.