Movie Review: I am Legend

I saw this Will Smith movie sometime last month. It is one of the first movies in which one actor takes the entire credits. Quite impressive and enjoyable for Will Smith fans, but I am not one of them. So here goes my review.

Nirvana for Will Smith Fans
Ever heard of a movie in which there is only one actor? Well if you haven’t you must watch I Am Legend. The movie is set in New York city on some futuristic date and the entire scene at the beginning appears like an enigma. The movie starts off showing Will Smith and his faithful dog, the only two survivors of a virus outbreak which makes affected people and animals thirst for human blood and can’t stand any light, not even that of electric bulbs. The affected population are strong, invincible, cruel, cannibalistic and of course ugly to look at. This kind of ‘save the world’ science fiction movies are a little out of place for the family crowds and definitely a ‘no, no’ for children.

But if you are a Will Smith fan and would like to see some of his exceptionally great acting, then this movie is a must watch. He has played his character very well. Another plus of the movie is their portrayal of New York city as a ghost town, inhabited by sloth bears, deer, the mutant creatures and of course Will Smith and his faithful dog.

The central character, Will Smith is a scientist, who firmly believes that he is the last surviving human being in the world who is not affected by the virus. When the entire country was evacuated he stays back to research and create a cure which would make the mutants human again. His routine everyday is to get up, do exercise and carry loads of guns and tranquilizers and go out into the city in a bid to capture some mutant and bring back blood samples. Every afternoon he sits on the pier and broadcasts a radio message requesting any humans in the city or surroundings to come and meet him.

One of these messages are heard by a mother and son and they come looking for him. Finding him in a violent confrontation with the mutants, they save him and bring him to his heavily guarded home. But the mutants attack that night and Will Smith is left with no other alternative but to kill himself to save the other two. At that moment he finds out that he has developed a cure for the virus and hands over the vial to the mother and son to take it to the rest of the survivors in some protected colony.

Will Smith’s stellar performance is the highlight of the movie. He talks to his dog, to himself, watches re-runs of the news, movies, cartoons etc and goes out into the ghost town, which New York has become in search of blood samples of mutants for his research.

But I fail to understand how Will Smith doesn’t get affected by the virus? And if humans and dogs are affected by the virus, how do the wild animals remain immune. At the end of the movie are all the mutants killed? How do the mother and child take the cure and reach the colony? Don’t they get attacked by the mutants? The directors could have done better if they had given answers to these questions.