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I Am Legend

Critics' Pick

(No longer in theaters)

Rating: PG-13 — for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence
Director: Francis Lawrence Cast: Will Smith, Alice Braga, Salli Richardson-Whitffield, Willow Smith, Charlie Tahan
Running Time: 100 minutes
Reader Rating: Write a Review

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Genre

Action/Adventure, Drama, SciFi/Fantasy

Producer

Akiva Goldsman, James Lassiter, Erwin Stoff, David Heyman, Neil Moritz

Distributor

Warner Bros. Pictures

Release Date

Dec 14, 2007

Release Notes

Nationwide

Official Website

iamlegend.warnerbros.com

Review

Apart from all the product placements, which feel weirdly incongruous in the context of Armageddon, the first two thirds and change of I Am Legend is terrific mindless fun: crackerjack action with gnashing vampires barely glimpsed (and scarier for that) and how’d-they-do-that New York locations that retroactively justify the traffic jams. (For a few weeks, every New York traffic report seemed to end: ï¿½And Fifth Avenue/lower Manhattan/Times Square is closed off for the Will Smith movie.ï¿½) The director, Francis Lawrence, clearly grooves on the visual gimmickï¿½wide-open spaces alternating with claustrophobic dens, as Smith closes himself up in his Washington Square brownstone while the ghouls howl and moan outside. Then some boring characters show up and a dangling cross on a rearview mirror signals faith and hope are about to make a dispiriting comeback. The finale is swift and senseless. So far no one has gotten the ending of this story right. We should get on it before the real plague hits. — David Edelstein