I Am Legend (2007)

 HALLOWEEN REVIEWS 2024

Director: Francis Lawrence

Writers: Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman, based on the novel by Richard Matheson and the 1971 screenplay by John William Corrington and Joyce Corrington

Stars: Will Smith, Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith, Darrell Foster, April Grace, Dash Mihok, Joanna Numata, Abbey

Robert Neville (Will Smith) is the last remaining human in New York City, where he works on a cure for the disease that has decimated the human race, turning most of the survivors into rage-filled creatures that cannot endure sunlight. 

There is much to enjoy here.

 

An empty NYC slowly being reclaimed by nature is perfectly evoked, and Smith is excellent as the lonely man trying to hang on to his life and his sanity long enough to achieve his goal. 

The early sections of the film are the best.

 Director Francis Lawrence and writers Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman establish the mutated survivors as a truly terrifying, unstoppable presence, most notably in a frightening sequence in which Neville enters their lair to look for his dog. 

However, they lose their sense of menace in direct proportion to the amount of screen time they get, no doubt due to the fact that they are realized through CGI rather than practical make-up effects. 

This is a rather large flaw in a film that gets so many other things right.

Spoiler alert!!! End of the movie!!