Smith Carries Legend

I Am Legend, a tale of the last man on Earth, who, through some freak of immunity, avoids a killer virus, isn't a perfect film. But despite its lack of surprises and its ending, which feels like "a studio-sanctioned reshoot," writes Chicago Tribune critic Michael Phillips, "you’re willing to cut the movie a break."

Perhaps it's because the film is, in the words of New York magazine's David Edelstein, "terrific, mindless fun."  Or because I Am Legend is "by far the best" of three big-screen adaptations of Richard Matheson's 1954 novella, says William Arnold of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. But what the movie also has going for it, according to critics, is Will Smith, who carries the picture "even when the story loses its nerve," Phillips says.