Will Smith is persuasive company in I Am Legend, and deserted Manhattan gives his isolation weight. The creatures and hurried storytelling are much less convincing, leaving a decent science-fiction thriller for those drawn to lonely-survivor stories.
Francis Lawrence’s I Am Legend is worth considering for Will Smith and its deserted Manhattan, though we would not choose it for the creatures. It attempts something harder than simply keeping a survivor in danger: making the hours he spends alone worth watching. For a substantial stretch, it manages that through an actor whose company remains welcome even when his character is unravelling. The horror is much less dependable, and the hurried storytelling eventually weakens the interest that the loneliness has earned.
Robert Neville gives Will Smith little human company to work with, which turns out to be an advantage for the performance. His warmth and humour make the isolation more painful, because we can see what this man would bring to a conversation if anyone were there. The scenes with his dog moved us more than we expected. He makes that companionship feel necessary to getting through another day, and the film takes it seriously without needing a second actor to explain its importance.
Andrew Lesnie’s cinematography makes deserted Manhattan a reason to keep watching in its own right. There is enough familiar city left for the lack of people to be disturbing; we do not need a creature appearing to understand what has gone wrong. Naomi Shohan’s production design is effective at making this somewhere a person has to live, despite the emptiness. The streets give Neville’s isolation a scale that his performance can then make personal.
The computer-generated creatures are a serious problem. Their artificiality makes them difficult to fear, particularly after the city has established such a persuasive sense of a real place emptied of people. Francis Lawrence can create unease, but the shocks keep interrupting it, asking us to jump when we had been willing to sit and worry. The more attention the film asks us to pay the creatures, the harder their shortcomings become to ignore.
Akiva Goldsman and Mark Protosevich’s screenplay struggles to connect its study of isolation to the action surrounding it. We want the danger to deepen our understanding of Neville, but too often it merely stops us spending time with him. Wayne Wahrman’s editing cannot disguise how awkwardly those demands fit together, and the increasingly rushed pace gives the story less room just when it needs more. At 101 minutes, the film is not long; it still manages to feel as though it has left important work unfinished.
James Newton Howard’s score supplies feeling that Will Smith has already made clear. In the scenes with the dog, we need no encouragement to recognise how much the companionship matters. A science-fiction thriller can earn its tension by showing how unfamiliar conditions change ordinary behaviour. This one has enough to observe in a man deprived of company without repeatedly hurrying him towards another threat.
For anyone drawn to lonely-survivor stories, there is enough here to justify the evening, with reservations. We would have preferred more time in Neville’s company and fewer interruptions from the effects department. Choose it for the man and the dog, and be prepared to tolerate the creatures.
