I am Legend

I'll keep this brief. This movie is set in a post-apocalyptic near-future NY where the ravages of an airborne virus have virtually depopulated the Earth, leaving alive only a tiny fraction who are somehow immune to the virus and another fraction who are mutated by the virus into unthinking, vicious but physically oh-so-powerful predators. One quirk they exhibit is that they can't stand sunlight and actively seek out shelter and dark to avoid sunlight.

Ok, coming back to the beginning, Will Smith, the star, is shown as having survived 1000 days, all alone - with only his pet dog for company. Every night, he barricades himself behind iron doors and sleeps through the night whe the 'Darkseekers' walk. He broadcasts frequently on AM frequencies for other survivors to join him but is met with resolute silence.

The movie then introduces one of many deux machina in the plot, listed below:-
a. Will Smith just happens to be a renowned virologist.
b. He also happens to find / live in a house with barricades and iron doors and escape detection by the 'Darkseekers' for nearly three years.
c. He happens to have a near-infinite power supply in his home. [ granted : all of NY is down - but that means that power to those areas will also be shut down, right? and they show the extreme measures taken to quarantine the area- including bombing bridges leading off the island]
d. He also has perfectly functioning plumbing in his home.
e. ***Spoiler***
When he is about to be killed by the 'Darkseekers' as he tries to take revenge for the murder of his dog, he is saved, oh-so-miraculously, by another survivor appearing there and her car's headlights drive off hundreds of them.
f. ***Spoiler***
As the lady rescues Smith and takes him home, she neglects to wait till dawn and so, is followed by the 'Darkseekers' who finally 'discover' where Will Smith stays and launch an attack the next night.
g. ***Spoiler***
Will Smith is somehow immune to the virus and yet, cant bring his professional expertise to bear to find a cure. Instead, during the course of a movie, he captures a 'Darkseeker' and experiments on her - she responds to no treatment until the last scene. Just as the DS legions invade his house and are baout to exterminate him, WS finds that the specimen he had was cured. So, voila!, the world, or whats left of it, is saved. And WS dies a martyr.
h. WS always seems to find petrol for his vehicles - I seriously doubt that any petrol available would stay liquid for over three years. Temperature variations in storage should have been enough for it to either evaporate or explode.


Anyway, those quibbles aside, the movie's good for a dekko - with decent plotting, though it tends to drag a bit in the middle as we're taken, in very excruciating detail, through WS's travails and daily routines. The scenes of a desolate and deserted New York are very good and chilling while the DS, made out of pure CGI, are scary enough though quite impossibly strong and acrobatic. WS's acting is good though the premise and conclusion of the story are a bit hard to believe.
Worth a dekko, though, and raises some very pertinent points, though in a very blink-and-you-miss-it peripheral sense about the possible dangers of playing God with Nature.

Rating: ***
Stars: Will Smith
Director: Francis Lawrence
Year: 2007