I Am Legend (2007)

A man speeds his car through the heart of Manhattan, not another soul in sight. Weeds blanket the roads, and herds of deer leap between the buildings. This opening image of I Am Legend is hard to forget once you have seen it. Films that depict a city emptied of humanity this vividly and this forlornly are rare, and at the center of it stands the actor Will Smith, alone.

What it’s about — The last survivor left in an empty New York

Robert Neville (Will Smith), a military doctor and scientist, is the last survivor of a mutated virus that wiped out most of humanity. In an empty New York, with a German shepherd as his sole companion, he maintains a regular routine and continues his vaccine research. By day he forages for food and calls out to other survivors over the radio, but when night falls, beings transformed into monsters by the virus come after him. The film moves between this solitary survival, Neville’s recollections of his lost family, and the last hope of saving humanity, peering deeply into one man’s inner life.

Direction — The ruined city itself a device of solitude

Director Francis Lawrence’s greatest achievement is the atmosphere of a ruined New York. The empty streets, the collapsed bridge, the cityscape reclaimed by nature were realized through a vast budget and meticulous visual effects, but they amount to more than mere spectacle. That desolate space itself functions as a device that ceaselessly evokes Neville’s loneliness. In a city full of human traces yet empty of humans, the audience experiences absolute isolation alongside the protagonist.

The first half of the film comes close to a monologue. Because his only conversation partner is the dog, the direction loads tension onto the details of daily life, into silence, into a single small sound. It is because of this calm buildup that the nightly confrontations with the infected arrive as a greater terror. That said, the development that quickens toward the latter half and the CGI-rendered visuals of the infected are a point that divides opinion. There is also the impression that it converges toward the conclusion of a somewhat ordinary genre film, compared with the realistic tension of the opening.

Performance — Will Smith’s one-man show, talking to a mannequin

This film is, in effect, Will Smith’s one-man show. Carrying the screen almost single-handed, he persuasively portrays an isolated man gradually breaking down. The sight of him talking to a mannequin and offering greetings at set times shows how loneliness transforms a person. In the few scenes where his emotion finally bursts out, Smith proves the deep acting ability that lies beyond a star’s charm. The passage where he loses the being most precious to him, in particular, remains the most heartbreaking moment in the film. The actors playing his family in flashback and the presence of Alice Braga, who joins in the latter half, also add warmth to the story.

What the film says — The small rules that keep us human

The core of I Am Legend is not a simple survival thriller but a story about solitude and hope. The reason Neville never gives up his vaccine research is that it is the last thread connecting him to a vanished humanity. The film quietly asks what it means to live for something even amid despair. Neville calling out to someone over the radio at the same hour each day and keeping his fixed routine without fail shows how precious the small rules a person clings to are, to remain human in a world where hope has vanished. Some say it falls short of the meaning of the title posed by the original novel, but as a drama of one man’s lonely struggle it leaves an unmistakable resonance.

Ratings and reception

By major film-database measures the rating is 7.2/10. Its critical freshness index is 68 percent, and its aggregate critic score is 65 out of 100. Praise for the powerful atmosphere of the first half coexists with regret over the latter half’s development, but Will Smith’s performance and the visuals of the ruined city draw broad support.

Verdict

I Am Legend is a film that leaves a powerful impression even if it is not perfect. The overwhelming image of an empty city, and the solitude of one man standing alone within it, linger long in the memory. The ordinariness of the ending remains a regret, but the atmosphere of the first half and Will Smith’s performance alone make it well worth watching. On that count I give it ★4.0.

Recommended for

• Those who love the atmosphere of a ruined city and a solitary survival tale
• Those who want to see dense acting close to a one-man show
• Those seeking sci-fi that values feeling and atmosphere over action