I Am Legend 2007

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: For most of the way it's starker (even with the comic relief) and more eerie in its atmospherics than the usual big-budget monster. Read more

Mark Rahner, Seattle Times: It looks like poor old Richard Matheson will go to his grave without ever seeing a movie that does justice to his great 1954 novel, I Am Legend. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: 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. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The popcorn elements are well handled, but what lingers is the sense of urban despair. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The herky-jerky script, by Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman, favors vignettes and set pieces over dramatic development, and those damned zombies are everywhere, overwhelming the proceedings with their slobbering and howling. Read more

Tasha Robinson, AV Club: Reasonably absorbing. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: I Am Legend is carried for a long while on the strength of Smith's performance, but even he can carry it only so far. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: I Am Legend is actually about the last man on earth played by one of the last real movie stars on earth. Read more

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: It doesn't serve I Am Legend to give you too much time to think. Better when it's galloping forward at top speed, dodging caribou and translucent zombies and putting the dog in peril. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: Lawrence's direction is patient, solid and suspenseful, and his vision of a lone fellow wandering through the atavistic hulk of Manhattan yields an indelible portrait of post-cataclysmic solitude. Read more

Tom Charity, CNN.com: So often, sci-fi is overproduced, but I Am Legend doesn't look like a CGI extravaganza. It looks like an edgy suspense movie shot on the fly in New York City after the fall. And because of that, it's all the more effective. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: In the end, this is a sci-fi zombie movie, folks. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: What should be shattering is often merely intriguing. Read more

Adam Graham, Detroit News: Smith is worth watching; the movie is not. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: ...The film is well-done, a case of suspenseful competence trumping questionable relevance. Read more

John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press: All the effort that went into the spectacle of destroying Manhattan in flashbacks could have been better spent on developing the claustrophobic, creepy present. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: I admire the intent of Mr. Smith, who has made it his mission to mix escapist fare with socially relevant material. Legend seems to split the difference and land in the middle of nowhere. That's a lonely place for moviegoers to be. Read more

Bruce Newman, San Jose Mercury News: Even with Smith acting up a storm, what starts out as a potentially fascinating picture about an apocalyptic plague soon devolves into yet another special-effects laden zombie movie. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: Most everything in I Am Legend feels lifted from elsewhere. Read more

David Ansen, Newsweek: I wouldn't dream of giving away the ending, but it's not likely to satisfy either the action crowd or Matheson fans. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The vampires aren't a particularly inspiring creation -- all pale and hairless and red-eyed -- but director Francis Lawrence gets some great effects out of New York itself. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR.org: When they do, banging their heads against plate glass as movie zombies always do, I started needing something else to think about. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: The Manhattan movie of the year, Francis Lawrence's I Am Legend, offers a stunning glimpse into how the city -- as we know it today -- might look in 2012 if it were abandoned in 2009. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Is going to be bigger than crucifix sales on Judgment Day. Scary, inventive, exciting and breathless adventure. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: I Am Legend is a grenade that goes off when least expected. It has more horror than heart, but it is never boring. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: This can't-miss concept, in development for decades, was done first and done better in 28 Days Later. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: It's almost as if the filmmakers wanted to say something about isolation, and loneliness, in the urban environment. Almost. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: I Am Legend turns from a quiet meditation on the nature of humanity into a B-movie schlockfest. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Smith nails the portrayal. It's not the kind of work that will earn him an Oscar nomination but audiences usually don't see better than this in genre films. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The movie works well while it's running, although it raises questions that later only mutate in our minds. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: I Am Legend is a blockbuster like no other, one that finds its grandness in modesty. It's a star vehicle with a star who knows his place in the universe. Read more

Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: [Director] Lawrence is pretty good at the spectacular stuff. And he's smart enough to let Smith be Smith. But there's only so much you can do with CGI monsters that don't seem right for this kind of sci-fi scenario. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: A big part of the reason for this movie's nose dive around the one-hour mark is that, seen up close, the Infected just aren't that scary. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Director Francis Lawrence makes eerie, effective use of New York City locations drained of human activity, shooting them for maximum anxiety and agoraphobia. Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Smith turns in a terrific performance, nailing Neville's angst while allowing room for humor. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: After its promising opening, I Am Legend devolves into a generic zombie slaughterfest, highly reminiscent of Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later and its sequel 28 Weeks Later. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: 'Nothing worked the way it was supposed to work!' Will Smith rages from his solitary hell in I Am Legend, yet this remarkable sci-fi thriller works a lot better than anyone could have expected. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: It's in the last half-hour that I Am Legend imports new elements that both propel the story to its explosive climax and just aren't as compelling as the day-in-the-life story that preceded it. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Read more

Nigel Floyd, Time Out: You're left gawping at $100 million-worth of eye-popping futuristic B-movie. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: [Smith's] powerful performance is not enough to save the movie -- initially a potent meditation on loneliness and an absorbing doomsday action movie -- from taking a wrong turn and never getting back on track. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Remarkably eerie yet annoyingly larded with cheap horror-film shock effects. Read more

Scott Foundas, Village Voice: If, as a movie, I Am Legend is less stylistically mind blowing and intellectually ambitious than last year's Yuletide dystopia, Children of Men, it's not far off. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Instead of maintaining its edgy sense of constant discomfort, the movie is compelled to make Neville as fuzzily adorable and messianic as possible. Read more