Robert Neville (Smith) is a scientist in 2012 Manhattan, the only survivor of a man-made virus that has wiped out humanity. By day he prowls the city with his faithful dog Sam; by night he hides in his fortified Washington Square house from a marauding army mutated by the virus into light-sensitive, flesh-eating zombies. Just as the leader (Mihok) of these night stalkers starts showing some scary intelligence, Robert encounters two others who are immune: Anna and Ethan (Braga and Tahan) who have faith in humanity's survival.

The film is extremely well-designed, with fascinating sweeping shots of a deserted New York. As Robert forages for food and companionship, his hope fades. His basement laboratory has yet to produce anything that looks like a cure. And then there are haunting nightmares of the city's evacuation, involving his wife and daughter (Richardson and real-life daughter Willow Smith). Smith digs deep to play these scenes with a vivid sense of inner turmoil and steely survivalism, plus his usual intense physicality.

But it starts to drift as the script adds elements that feel cheap and calculated, driven by pointless vengeance on both sides: Robert and the infected leader are locked in a tit-for-tat battle that feels utterly phoney. It's basically just an excuse for a series of violent set pieces that don't really have any logic to them, and lead to a ridiculously overwrought Hollywood finale (plus a corny coda).

Even so, Robert and his dog make a terrific team, and they get themselves into some truly frightening situations. The shattered cityscapes are fascinatingly rendered with plenty of detail (although the hairless infected creatures look rather fake). And there's also an intriguing spirituality that creeps into the story later on, as Anna's hopeful religious convictions contrast with Robert's profound despair. Indeed, the film's most powerful moment is when Robert tells Anna the story of Bob Marley, and why love and light are the things that will change the world. Then the monsters attack and Hollywood is back in control.

themes, violence

7.Dec.07

Brad, San Antonio, TX: "I loved it except for one thing, the numbers for the amount of survivors were wrong. Smith's character said 90% of the 6 billion people died, and only 1% of the remaining 600 million were immune. He said that would leave 12 million people when it would actually leave half of that. There would be 12 million survivors if, and only if 2% of the remaining population were immune. Come on writers. How hard is it to do a little math? Besides this and a couple of other ?'s I'd say it was a great film with a great performance by Smith." (17.Dec.07)