I Am Legend

When an anti-cancer virus suddenly mutates, it wipes out most of the human race and turns the rest into vampires. Three years later, a scientist immune to the virus (Will Smith) haunts a ruined Manhattan trying to develop a cure. Richard Matheson’s 1954 last-man-on-earth novel has been filmed before (officially in 1964’s The Last Man on Earth and 1971’s The Omega Man, but many movies have cribbed the idea), so often that the novelty has long worn off. The updated script by Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman is slow-moving, uneventful and slackly directed by video veteran Francis Lawrence. Still, the CGI vision of an empty, dilapidated New York, overgrown with weeds and teeming with vampires and wild animals, is morbidly amusing, and it’s virtually a one-man show for Smith, who commands the screen.