When it comes time to save the world from an inhuman menace, it seems the votes are in: Will Smith is our man. After fending off aliens in
Men In Black and
Independence Day, a giant mechanical spider in
The Wild, Wild West, and scheming androids in
I, Robot, Smith is back, once again, to save the planet (or at least what’s left of it) in
I Am Legend. This time, he’s thwarting CGI vampire-zombies gurgling, growling, vein-exposed post-humans who’ve been infected by a human-created virus and now feed off the living who’ve taken over New York after most of mankind has died or been killed off.
And, as with his previous outings as planetary hero, Smith proves himself a captivating action star, as well as a genuinely entertaining star, imbued with just the right blend of cockiness, quirkiness, and tenacity. He’s got the wisecracks, sure, and the gym-toned physique (which Legend gives him ample opportunity to show off), but he’s also refreshingly wholesome, as befitting the guy behind “Parents Just Don’t Understand.” Against all odds, he’s exactly the person you’d want to save the world. Who knew the Fresh Prince of Bel Air would make such a formidable foe to zombies, robots, and aliens alike?
Legend begins with a nifty, wordless car chase through New York City. Director Francis Lawrence’s camera swoops down from above the skyline toward a Smith, who, in a red Mustang GT with white racing stripes, is tearing through Lower Manhattan. Is someone chasing him? Is he on the run? Or maybe he’s after someone himself? That’s closer. Turns out Smith is hunting as in hunting deer, a pack of which is hurtling around city street corners between the Bowery and Washington Square.
Yes, Manhattan, and presumably the rest of the U.S., has been depopulated by a killer virus. Now, the Lower East Side is in ruins. Debris is strewn everywhere. Buildings are in disrepair. Cars are stalled out in the middle of lanes. (Okay, so maybe it doesn’t look all that different.) The virus, originally designed as a cure for cancer that would propagate itself virally, turned out to be an extinction serum that killed 90 percent of the population and left most of the rest of humanity transformed into the aforementioned vampire zombies, feasting on flesh and avoiding sunlight.
All that survives is Will Smith as Robert Neville and his incredibly cute and convenient puppy, without whom the audience would have no idea what was going on, for Smith would have no one to explain his thoughts to. Fortunately, Smith is a top research scientist with military training, so the zombie takeover hasn’t affected him too much. Thanks to some generators he rigged up for his apartment, he’s still got a coffee pot and a flat panel TV as well as a research lab packed with Macs. (Only Macs, of course, could survive such a devastating virus.)
The vampire zombies show up every now and then to flex their CGI muscles and make trouble, but mostly, the film is a lonely survivor’s tale and a surprisingly good one. Smith hunts, collects supplies, talks to department store mannequins, remembers his last night with his wife and child. Throughout most of the film, it’s just Smith, his dog, and the empty island of Manhattan. The movie might as well have been called
Castaway 2: New York.
There’s little in the way of music, and Lawrence never goes overboard with his direction. In fact, the film is often surprisingly quiet and calm, a rare and pleasant thing in contrast with the usual sugar-addled blockbuster bombast. In other words, it’s exactly the opposite of, say, Michael Bay, who seems to edit his films to the rhythm of his heartbeat after a pot of espresso and three bowls of Cocoa Puffs.
The most impressive special effect, in fact, is the empty city itself. It’s tough to imagine New York without its noisy, street-clogging crowds.
Legend, though, has created a truly immersive world in which a family of lions can steal a man’s catch. (The message, of course: Humans are no longer the king of this jungle.) The movie’s first hour is restless and aimless, and consists mostly of Smith and his dog going about their business in the empty city, the first New Yorker to ever be truly alone. The movie’s being sold as a high-octane action spectacular, but thanks to Smith and Lawrence’s directorial restraint, the quiet moments are what define the film, and what you find yourself wanting to see most.
If anything, it’s the action scenes that fail. In the middle of the shoot, Lawrence decided that his human zombies weren’t scary enough, and he got extra funds from the studio to beef them up with a hearty helping of monster-CGI. One almost wishes the studio had simply declined and used the money to throw some seven-figure birthday parties for their top execs. The difference in the creatures is marked, but not in a positive manner. Now, instead of merely seething and bearing their teeth, their faces contort and bubble as if every one of them is an undead Jim Carrey from
The Mask. They move in packs and swarms that are suspiciously similar to those of the automatons that Smith fought off in
I, Robot, as if the CGI artists simply recycled the same algorithm, but set for “zombie” rather than “robot.” Perhaps the original baddies weren’t terribly frightening, but these hardly provide the necessary menace. Every time the showed up on screen, I found myself wishing that Smith would simply go back to strolling around New York and talking to his dog.
Clocking in at just over 90 minutes, the film is short, probably
too short. Most action blockbusters these days tend toward the interminable, but
Legend at least errs on the side of refusing to overstay its welcome. That means a less than spectacular finale, and a third act that feels rushed and underwhelming. Of course, after all the previous outings, it would take a lot for any Smith-saves-the-planet spectacular to really bring the wows. At this point, Smith is just adding another notch to his belt. Aliens? Check. Robots? Check. Vampire-zombies? Check. It’s far from legendary, but it’ll do.
Peter Suderman is associate editor of Doublethink. He blogs at theamericanscene.com. 
