Will Smith movies aren’t generally what you’d call master pieces. Some of them actually suck quite a lot (i.e”Wild, Wild West”, “Bad Boys 2″), but they always manage to entertain me as a viewer, and that’s more than what I can of some other Big Movie Stars (yes, I’m looking at you, Tom Cruise, you big freak of a religious nut).

“I Am Legend” is no different in that regard, ’cause it’s entertaining to a very shallow extent. The action is super actiony, the scary bits are extra frightening and it features a quite feasible scenario which tinges it with something very similar to a realistic feel. I really wanted to like this movie, and I think I wouldn’t abhor it if I’d been a few years younger and hadn’t watched Danny Boyle’s original take on the same concept.

The year is 2009 and the 90% of the human population is dead and 9% are ZombieVampires(tm). Goddamn! How did this shit happen, you might ask, and I’ll tell you how, too. You see, there was this scientist that claimed she’d cured cancer by enlisting a genetically altered virus in the good fight against it. Things went as they’re wont to do; things backfired something fierce and… suffice to say that hilarity did not ensue. The virus infected everyone alive, killed the most of them, made the majority of the rest into aggravated, dumb, literally blood-thirsty, pasty-looking fellows who only come out at night because of their sun allergy, and the last percent got to lose a fun game called “Brainzz”. New York was ground zero for the outbreak and Robert Neville (Will Smith) decides to take up residence in this undoubtedly lovely neighbourhood while he searches for a cure. It’s been three years now and still no results, but he won’t give up; this is after all his Legend…

This film is a prime example of what happens when Hollywood execs sees how much dough Danny Boyle’s “28 Days Later” franchise has been bringing in and decides that they too want a piece of that cake. Now, I haven’t read Richard Matheson’s classic novel that this movie’s supposedly based on, but my sources tell me that Will Smith & Co haven’t paid much attention to the source material. I’m inclined to believe that now, since this movie fails in every area other then classic American departments; action and the fail-safe creep-out effect you get from having bloody zombies jump out at you in the dark.

“I Am Legend” is also rife with logical errors. For example, this entire deal has been going on for three years now, right? Well, then how the hell have hundreds (or thousands for that matter) of zombies managed to survive on such a small island as Manhattan? Clearly they crave blood or at least human flesh to survive, and they’d need a shitload of it since their metabolism is three times as high as regular person’s.

Neville tells us that the creature’s have gone back to their most primal instincts. Okay, that sounds nifty and good, but how come they’re capable of deducing Neville’s psyche and setting elaborate traps for him if they’re so basic? And if they learned how to do that by observing Will Smith’s character do it first, then how come they can’t figure out how to drive a car? It really isn’t that hard, and chances are that they’d remember it from when they weren’t undead.

And why are the deer running around in packs? And why are there PACKS of DEER on Manhattan only three years after human civilization collapsed? I’d give you that there could be ten or twenty of them roaming the streets of NYC, but hundreds of them? Uh-oh. That’s not right at all.

I could go on and on about these errors. Like how the hell a pack of lions survived three winters in NYC without heating. Have you seen how much snow there is over there? But this is getting boring - there’s only so much time you care to use on reviewing what’s clearly a poor movie.

So to sum up: “I Am Legend” equals a cheap Hollywood knock-off of “28 Days Later”, Will Smith does a poor job of portraying how his characters spirals into madness, the themes are laid on so thick that anorectics could clot their arteries with ‘em and the ending is predictable (so is the rest of the plot).

But, you know, it was still quite fun…

…yay?

3,5 /10