Will Smith Movie:

		List Price: $35.99		Label: Warner Home Video Salesrank: 242 Released: March 18, 2008
		Our Price: $10.40
		Used Price: $8.99
		MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Media: Blu-ray

Editorial Review:
Robert Neville is a brilliant scientist, but even he could not contain the terrible virus that was unstoppable, incurable, and man-made. Somehow immune, Neville is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York City and maybe the world. For three years, Neville has faithfully sent out daily radio messages, desperate to find any other survivors who might be out there. But he is not alone. Mutant victims of the plague -- The Infected -- lurk in the shadows... watching Neville's every move... waiting for him to make a fatal mistake. Perhaps mankind's last, best hope, Neville is driven by only one remaining mission: to find a way to reverse the effects of the virus using his own immune blood. But he knows he is outnumbered... and quickly running out of time.

Description of I Am Legend [Blu-ray]:
Will Smith stars in the third adaptation of Richard Matheson’s classic science-fiction novel about a lone human survivor in a post-apocalyptic world dominated by vampires. This new version somewhat alters Matheson’s central hook, i.e., the startling idea that an ordinary man, Robert Neville, spends his days roaming a desolated city and his nights in a house sealed off from longtime neighbors who have become bloodsucking fiends. In the new film, Smith’s Neville is a military scientist charged with finding a cure for a virus that turns people into crazed, hairless, flesh-eating zombies. Failing to complete his work in time--and after enduring a personal tragedy--Neville finds himself alone in Manhattan, his natural immunity to the virus keeping him alive. With an expressive German shepherd his only companion, Neville is a hunter-gatherer in sunlight, hiding from the mutants at night in his Washington Square town house and methodically conducting experiments in his ceaseless quest to conquer the disease.

The film’s first half almost suggests that I Am Legend could be one of the finest movies of 2007. Director Francis Lawrence’s extraordinary, computer-generated images of a decaying New York City reveal weeds growing through the cracks of familiar streets that are also overrun by deer and prowled by lions. It’s impossible not to be fascinated by such a realistically altered cityscape, reverting to a natural environment, through which Smith moves with a weirdly enviable freedom, offset by his wariness over whatever is lurking in the dark of bank vaults and parking garages. Lawrence and screenwriters Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman wisely build suspense by withholding images of the monsters until a peak scene of horror well into the story. It must be said, however, that the computer-enhanced creatures don’t look half as interesting as they might have had the filmmakers adhered more to Matheson’s vampire-nightmare vision. I Am Legend is ultimately noteworthy for Smith’s remarkable performance as a man so lonely he talks to mannequins in the shops he frequents. The film’s latter half goes too far in portraying Smith’s Neville as a pitiable man with a messianic mission, but this lapse into bathos does nothing to take away from the visual and dramatic accomplishments of its first hour. --Tom Keogh

I Am Legend [Blu-ray] Reviews:
Not bad, but could have been better
2009-12-01 - I have never read the novels before so I can't compare the movie to them. When I first saw the trailers, I was genuinely excited to watch this movie. This review is based strictly on my own personal opinion regarding the movie.

I thought the concept behind the story was cool. A scientist claims she has found the cure for cancer, but a few years later, pretty much everyone is either dead or has become some type of creature that lives in the dark and apparently feeds on flesh and blood. Will Smith plays Robert Neville, a scientist who is living in NYC while trying to find a cure for this disease. His only companion is his dog Sam. Their relationship kind of reminds me of Tom Hanks and Wilson from the movie Castaway. It shows how difficult it is to live in isolation without any other form of human contact. But as far as the story goes, that's pretty much the gist of it.

They also should have used real actors and actresses to play the creatures. Sometimes I feel like movies have fallen in love with CGI way too much. Honestly, the creatures look fake to me. They just don't look real at all for some reason. There were also parts of the movie that were just unnecessary (the scene where he goes to "rent" movies). I mean, I understand they're trying to show how he needs contact with other humans, but did we really need to see that scene? And why did he go back in there after the incident with Sam later on in the movie? Totally unnecessary in my opinion.

Overall, it was an OK movie. It wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible either. If you're a Will Smith fan, I'd say go check it out and see what it's about for yourself.

Full of adventure and heart!
2009-11-29 - Will Smith is simply brilliant as the sole survivor, Robert Neville. Will delivers movingly and convincingly on a script that really focuses on giving us a picture of "what it would be like" ... to be the last man on earth, living off the land in NYC. This is the real strength of this movie: there's really not a lot of blood or gore or zombie scenes at all. Yet I was riveted as Robert goes through his "typical days" in NYC. Every moment was full of pathos and full of menace, too. And occasionally we got some relief from Smith's trademark humor that blended seamlessly with the rest of his performance to give us "what it would be like" with a powerful delivery that just leaves me almost breathless.

There's an effective use of flashbacks that partly tell us the story of how we got to where we're at in this grim New York City; and the flashbacks also serve to give us an overwhelming contrast between Life Before and Life After the apocalyptic disaster wiped out the city. Yet use of flashback was sparing, which I found all the more effective.

Cinematography was excellent throughout, the storyline and script are brilliant, the use of a dog, Samantha, as a key actor was perfect to show us both Robert as companion and Robert as lonely, isolated survivor.

I won't give away the ending, but think it was satisfying as far as it goes, but not nearly as appealing, from my angle, as the foregoing material. That brings up my one complaint: the title. By the end of the movie, we have some sense of the meaning of the title. Yet it still seems to me to feel cheesy and really unworthy of the movie.


Glad I got to see it
2009-11-25 - I haven't read the novel I Am Legend. And I haven't seen its original big screen outing, Omega Man, starring Charlton Heston. However, I recently sat down to watch the latest Will Smith-helmed outing of I Am Legend. The movie is thrilling, touching, and eye-popping. It's a great evening's entertainment for fans of action and sci-fi thrillers alike.

Smith is the man who is the key to cancer. The back story tells us that scientists obviously rocked the world when they unlocked this piece of the genetic puzzle. What they never could have expected was the plague that would claim more lives than cancer ever did. And that's the backdrop where we get to know Smith's Robert Neville.

Neville is the only human left in New York City. This is the visually stunning part of the film. The CGI really gives us an amazing view of a broken down, overgrown, post-apocalyptic New York. Neville roars through the city hunting deer from his Ford Mustang. Tearing up sidewalks, and dodging busses, our hero hunts wild deer with his faithful dog Sam.

At night, the two fortify themselves in Neville's apartment. They must do this because the plague which rocked the world has turned some of its inhabitants into nocturnal monsters. They are the key threat to our hero's world, and the one compelling reason that keeps him strong. He was the one who unlocked Pandora's Box. And no one else will be able to set things right.

Will Smith has come a long way since his Fresh Prince days. Outings in films like Independence Day, Hitch, Bad Boys, and The Pursuit of Happyness have cemented Smith as a solid leading man. I Am Legend gives him a chance to really flex his dramatic muscles. We see Neville as eccentric hermit, grieving husband, and driven hero.

I Am Legend delivers a solid story with echoes that may leave you wondering `what if' for some time after.


dvd
2009-11-18 - The DVD I purchesed was great just as described will do business with seller again

Major dissapointment
2009-11-11 - Let me state right from the beginning that if I had not read the book, I may have ranked the movie higher, but (unfortunately) I can't be that objective. Richard Matheson's near perfect man vs. self story of isolation and terror had been made into too many bad film versions already, and this one does nothing to help the cause. Will Smith does a nice job of trying to carry the film on his well developed shoulders (nice job with the reverse chin-ups, Fresh Prince) but the plot is convoluted and the emotion is forced. Watch this, if you must, but be prepared to be hugely disappointed if you've read and enjoyed the novel.