Synopsis:

I Am Legend is the story of Robert Neville (Smith), a military scientist who appears to be the last man on earth.  After a vaccination for cancer was apparently developed, the population ate it up (as you might expect) and soon nearly everyone had received it.  The problem was that it turned them into something else, something far worse than cancer would have done. 

Neville lives in what used to be New York City and is working on a cure for the disease.  Attempting to help them takes up the bulk of Neville's time, though he also fits in social interaction with mannequins he randomly placed throughout the city in an attempt to hang on to his sanity.  Along with his only companion, Sam, Neville maintains a very interesting albeit secluded lifestyle that would drive most of us mad.

The Freak's Rating: A :  "Now this is a story all about how, my life got flipped turned upside down..."  So goes the theme to The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, the television vehicle that brought Will Smith into stardom.  On that show, Smith was instantly likeable and to make it easier for us, it turned out he was a nice guy off-screen as well.  Taking his stardom into movies, Smith has had a series of roles that made you like him more and more.  He was a son seeking a father in Six Degrees Of Seperation, a good cop in Bad Boys, a comical fighter pilot in Independence Day and a funny cop in Men In Black.  Lately it seems Smith is trying to break his stride of easy roles.  He dipped into drama in Ali and The Pursuit Of Happyness and pulled off his roles nicely, earning an Academy Award nomination along the way.  Now he fights zombies.  Yes, that's right...zombies.

I Am Legend is the retelling of The Omega Man, based on a story written in the 1940s.  I Am Legend is completely engrossing, supplying humor, fear and drama all rolled into one.  The real showcase here is Will Smith.  It seems a lot of the public is desensitized to Smith's acting ability.  If you don't respect the man for his acting ability, see this film and you will.  Like Hanks did in Castaway, Smith IS this movie.  Without him the film doesn't work.  It is a role that is so well played that after seeing it you can't imagine anyone else doing a better job.  The sweeping shots of an abandoned New York City are amazing, leaving you with a "how did they do that?" feeling.  Bob Marley music tossed in also gets a positive vote from me, since the wife & I just recently went to Jamaica.

All in all it is a great film.  One I can't wait to own and watch again.

Sebastian's Rating: A- : SPOILER WARNING - yeah i enjoyed it, sad when the dog died :(

Brian's Rating: A- : Being one of the latter to review this on the sight, I want to focus more on the discussion of the ending (see Nate and Angie's reviews).  Whoever the Holleywood pocketbook that decided to put in the theatrical ending instead of the original ending should be given a permanent leave of absence and encouraged to make a career change.  This is one of the worst last-minute changes to a film that I can think of.

Yeah. In the original ending (read: good ending), the vampires are revealed to be thinking, benevolent creatures who were merely attempting to rescue a vampire that Neville had captured earlier.

From what I understand, not only does the book end in a similar way, but it in fact was the entire freaking point of the book. That's where the title "I Am Legend" came from, Neville's realization at the end that the vampires were the good guys and that he was the monster of their legends, since he had been mindlessly driving stakes through their heart at every opportunity. With the theatrical ending added later, maybe a title like "So I'm The Asshole" would have been clearer.

In the theatrical ending (read: crappy ending) they somehow decided to have Will Smith blow up himself and a bunch of the dark seekers.  This completely and utterly undermines the entire point of the movie, that the zombie's are in fact, thinking, emotional beings capable of reason.  Instead, this ending just confuses you because it implies they are just animals and somehow Neville is the hero for blowing up a bunch of animals that only wanted to rescue a little girl.  All the hints throughout the movie are thrown aside leaving the dark seekers as serving no other purpose other than general horror movie mayhem.  As Angie said, the entire movie points toward the original ending making sense, not the ending shown in theaters.

My rating is for the alternate version of the movie only.  The theatrical ending makes the entire movie mediocre, and only that because Will Smith did such a fine job.  In some stories, the ending is ultra important.  Imagine how Sixth Sense would be if Bruce Willis walks away at the end of the movie back to normal life and the entire thing was revealed to instead be a dream.

Oh, and the A- is because I agree with Jen on some of the CGI stuff.  It was not all that stellar, particularly with the animals.

Alternate Ending: A-
Theatrical Ending: C
 

Joyce's Rating: B- : I agree with Jen as far as the zombie thing. I usually don't enjoy these types of movies or sci-fi. Will Smith did an amazing job, being basically the lone actor. Some of the scenes were hard to believe...lions, deer.

Angie's rating: A -  WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS:  When I left the theater I was disappointed and a little confused.  Not with the concept but with the storyline.  After talking with other people who have seen the movie, I must watch it again.  I was very convinced after seeing it that the female zombie, that was being tested for one of his cures, could have been returned to the colony and the other zombies would probably not have seeked him out or tried to trap him in daylight.  (If they only wanted to eat him there is easier prey)  Also, I was very confused as to how they managed to learn how to trap him in a similiar style when they had "reverted back to their most basic instincts."  Even with all of these things bothering me, I still thought the movie was amazing!  Will Smith IS amazing in this movie and the death that he suffers is one of the hardest things I have watched on film.  I agree with Jen, in that I wished they had used more real animals in the film.  It would have been much better for the scenes, but the movie did a good job of taking a place that is so familiar and full of life and turning it into a backdrop for a last man standing world.  I saw this with a couple of friends of mine from Brasil and we also appreciated the Bob Marley influence in the film.  :)

UPDATE 4/15/08 - That's affirmative!  If you had any reservations about this film like I had.  (see previous review)  definitely rent the dvd with the alternate ending, which also includes a couple extra scenes, and I promise you will feel validated!  It feels good to know I was on the right track.  :)