Reviewer: Shannon H.
    

Mankind has stood up to the test of time when it comes to surviving plagues and outbreaks. The human race has survived various outbreaks of the Bubonic Plague, the 1918 Spanish flu, smallpox, and a whole host of other deadly illnesses. But what if there is a disease that’s so powerful that it has the capacity to wipe humans off the planet with only a slim chance of survival? Would we, as humans, be able to survive such a travesty?
 
On TV, a scientist, Dr. Alice Krippen (Emma Thompson) is being interviewed on TV after finding a way to cure cancer by taking microbes deadly to humans and “reversing” them to work for humans against cancer cells. Although this practice has achieved success, the virus mutated into a deadly form that ended up wiping out 90 percent of the world’s population. Out of the 10% of the population that are living, 12 million are immune and the rest have turned into zombie-like creatures that are horribly sensitive to light.

Dr. Robert Neville (Will Smith), a military scientist and New York City’s only healthy, immune resident, is literally surviving in the big city; by hunting down deer and other woodland creatures that normally exist outside of urban areas. It is the year 2012, three years after the deadly virus outbreak, leaving the Big Apple to be a giant ghost town. Neville’s only companion is a German Shepherd named Sam (full name is Samantha) who is immune to the airborne version of the virus while Neville is immune to both the airborne and fluid aspects of the virus. Neville’s day consists of exercise, hunting for food (despite the fact that his kitchen is stocked with non-perishable goods), and experimenting with a cure that could possibly reverse the effects of the deadly virus. He often has flashbacks of watching his wife and daughter die in a freak helicopter accident during a quarantine-related evacuation which fuels his desire to find a cure. While he has tested a serum on rats with mild success, he has yet to test it on humans.
 
Every day in the afternoon, Dr. Neville broadcasts himself over the AM frequency at a harbor, promising food and protection. Unfortunately, no one has responded. Desperate for human companionship, Neville sets up mannequins in a video rental store for the sole purpose of talking to them. One day while hunting a deer, Neville and Sam come across a colony of zombies living in an abandoned office building. Neville manages to catch a female zombie, to the dismay of the alpha male leader of the group. He takes the woman home and gives her the serum but it fails to work. From there, his situation becomes even more desperate due to the loss of his best friend and just when all seems hopeless and he is about to be overtaken, headlights appear through the darkness...

I Am Legend isn’t without objectionable content, but the good news is that it is completely devoid of sexual content and profanity. Unfortunately (and understandably), it has a good amount of scary, thematic violence. Dr. Neville is constantly seen shooting at zombies that attack him, as well as hunting wildlife for food. We see flashbacks of a woman and her daughter about to die in a helicopter accident (the scene cuts from the actual crash so the audience does not see the results). After Dr. Neville’s dog Sam is infected, he ends her misery by strangling her (the camera focuses on Neville and not so much the dog, but it may be uncomfortable to animal lovers). A man accidentally stabs himself in the leg by falling on his own knife. A man commits suicide by pulling a grenade pin and running head first into a group of zombies (there is an explosion but no carnage is seen).

The film, based on the book by Richard Matheson, doesn’t have a great deal of spiritual content. Dr. Neville states that it was mankind, not God, that created the monster virus, but later on proclaims that “there is no God,” in response to a woman claiming God told her to rescue Neville and take him to a survivor colony in Vermont. The film seems to be hinting at two opposites; someone who has faith in God despite adversity and another that is skeptical of God’s existence after a pandemic turns humankind into an endangered species. The film feels like a mix of both, although it seems as if it is slightly pro-God (if not necessarily God in a Christian sense). I found I Am Legend to be a less-than-average experience. It’s not horrible but it’s not good, either. There isn’t a whole lot of action considering the main character fights off zombies. There are also a few things that don’t make sense; how does Dr. Neville get running water? How does he get Internet access? These and a few other inconsistencies leave me scratching my head (his home does have electricity that is probably powered by a portable generator). This film is like Tim Burton’s 9, but with humans instead of rag dolls (and it’s slightly better than Legend). At times, it would cut to a scene with little or no connection to the previous scene. Although slightly spiritually positive, overall it's not recommended.