I Am Will Smith looking for an Oscar: A look at I AM LEGEND

Alright...let's all take a small poll:

How many of you knew by looking at the trailer that that there'd be zombies involved? Okay. I didn't until almost right before I went in when I learned about the answer to the next question.

How many of you knew that this isn't an original movie and instead is a loose remake of a 1970's movie called Omega Man starring Charleton Heston which was also a remake of a 1961 flick called "The Last Man on Earth" starring Vincent Price? Me neither. But even with all that, I AM LEGEND didn't disappoint.

The Fresh Prince of Bel Air had large shoes to fill following in the terrified footsteps of Heston and Price as main character/virologist/zombi

e-killer Dr. Robert Neville. Smith's subtle performance of being the last known human on Earth (or at least living in NYC) striving to keep his sanity, starve off loneliness, fighting off viral zombies, and searching for a cure that turned the human race into zombies is, in my humble opinion, Oscar-worthy.

Yes...I'll repeat that again in case you did a double take...I said that the guy who penned that coming-of-teenage tune "Parents Just Don't Understand" deserves an Oscar nod. No other actor I could think of could have pulled off the sensitivity, strength, and intelligence required to make this role a success. No disrespect to the Tom Hanks, the Denzels, or the Deniros our there. This Cinderella slipper would've only fit Will Smith's dainty feet.

And Smith's only interaction in the first two thirds of this movie is with his trusty canine companion echoing Tom Hanks and that stubborn volleyball, Wilson, from Castaway.

And the first two-thirds...oh my...you'll be stuck to find such stark and breathtaking cinematography in anything else released this year. (e.g. Smith driving golf balls off of an air craft carrier on to the empty wild streets of NYC). The acting, the story, and the atmosphere is worth the price of admission alone.

Then the final third (AKA the Zombie Third) rears its head and it becomes another movie all together. If you liked "28 Days Later" then this would be right up your alley. I didn't like "28 Days Later" but still found this last bit exciting, enjoyable, and borderline predictable.

As a whole, it was a great popcorn-chomping movie that nearly approached brilliance but shied away at the end.

8.2 viral zombies out of 10.