I Am LegendMovie Reviews


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Avg. Critic Score: 65 out of 100 Generally favorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
13 Iffy for 13+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 88
    New York Daily News | Jack Mathews

    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 full review

  • 75
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    Trouble enters only when the script overcomplicates things in the end. Until then, especially in a growling dogfight, director Francis Lawrence (Constantine) keeps you squirming. Read full review

  • 75
    Boston Globe | Wesley Morris

    It's neither a neat little allegory about faith nor a transcendently entertaining one. I Am Legend is actually about the last man on earth played by one of the last real movie stars on earth. To be honest, Smith was all I was thinking about while I sat through I Am Legend. Read full review

  • 75
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    In spirit, I Am Legend is caught in some abstractly doom-laden sci-fi past. For what it is, though, the film is well-done, a case of suspenseful competence trumping questionable relevance. Read full review

  • 75
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    If it is true that mankind has 100 years to live before we destroy our planet, it provides an enlightening vision of how Manhattan will look when it lives on without us. The movie works well while it's running, although it raises questions that later only mutate in our minds. Read full review

  • 70
    The Hollywood Reporter | Kirk Honeycutt

    Smith, sporting a newly buffed physique, delivers an extraordinary performance as a man slowly coming unglued under the strain of no human contact and a constantly alternating role of hunter and prey. Read full review

  • 63
    Philadelphia Inquirer | Steven Rea

    I Am Legend is essentially "28 Days Later" . . ., or "28 Weeks Later" . . ., only with millions more for special effects, and with nothing approaching the heart-pounding, bloodcurdling power and smarts of the two British-made yarns. Read full review

  • 63
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    A little more than halfway in, Legend, based on the book by Richard Matheson (which also spawned 1971's Omega Man and 1964's TheLast Man on Earth), deteriorates into a schlocky zombie horror flick and loses its steam. Read full review

  • 50
    San Francisco Chronicle | Walter Addiego

    If you want lots of Will Smith and industrial-strength special effects, the movie delivers. Read full review

  • 50
    Wall Street Journal | Joe Morgenstern

    The star, as solo practitioner, does a terrific job of holding our attention when we're not taking in surreal vistas of a deserted Manhattan that are fascinating in their own right. Still, zombies are zombies, and this nasty lot, mostly digital creations of variable quality, keep draining the distinction that the movie seeks and occasionally finds. Read full review

View more reviews for I Am Legend on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 13+ Intense, thoughtful thriller has some big scares.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that although this cerebral action thriller is quite clean when it comes to language and sexual content, it deals with intense subjects like the fall of mankind and the fight for survival. It's not for kids who get scared, since it gets pretty terrifying, especially when the mutants take their turn onscreen. They jump out of nowhere, and the movie makes the most of that suspense to heighten the audience's response. Overall, the movie is very sobering -- and, unlike many Will Smith thrillers, it's light on the fun. Still, teens will want to see it and will be intrigued by the special effects and the edge-of-your-seat action.
  • Families can talk about Hollywood's fascination with disaster movies and post-apocalyptic stories. What's the hook? How is this one different? Which aspect of the movie is more interesting to you: its thoughtful side or the fighting-off-mutants side? How is this movie different from other Will Smith sci-fi films? Families can also discuss what they'd do in Robert's place. Would you be able to keep your wits about you, as he seems to have (barely)? Would you be able to make the selfless decisions he seems to make?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: In the aftermath of a viral apocalypse, society has collapsed. People have become zombie-like mutants that feast on human flesh. The main character is reduced to his base nature, paranoid and on the brink. But he rises to the occasion when the time comes and makes a difficult decision for the good of mankind.
What to watch for
  • violence false4 Violence: Frequent. The main character totes guns and shoots at marauding, rabid mutants who attack him with the intent to either eat him or kill him -- or both. He also accidentally stabs himself, flashes a gun at a woman and her child, and conducts experiments on feral rats and other creatures. Bridges and buildings explode, cars careen, and a loyal dog becomes collateral damage.
  • sex false0 Sexy stuff: A married couple shares a tender kiss.
  • language false2 Language: Pretty mild; "damn," "hell," "Oh my God."
  • consumerism false3 Consumerism: Premium placement for the Mustang GT500, Apple computers, iPod, and a Time magazine cover. Lots of signage left behind in New York, especially in Times Square, where billboards for Broadway shows abound, as well as hotel brands like Hyatt.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false1 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Robert downs prescription pills at a very difficult moment.
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Dave White

4.5

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… it's exciting, it's suspenseful, stuff blows up … Read full review See Dave White's on MOVIENAME on Movies.com

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