Because I am a nice wife, I will occasionally jazz up our Netflix queue with a boy movie, especially after a slew of costume dramas. I was very, very brave last week to watch, in its entirety, ""I Am Legend".

I didn't expect to completely adore it.


Will Smith is a pretty thing to see. I've always liked him, despite the Scientology rumours and his way of naming children. He and his wife seem on equal footing, they work well with the ex-wife apparently, and I love that a black man in Hollywood gets the recognition and money that white actors have claimed for so long. I mean, look at them!

But. To single-handedly carry along a plot line - and a crazy one at that - for at least an hour of a major film. That is something that few have done - Tom Hanks comes to mind. I remember a New York friend telling me, after seeing "I Am Legend" in the theatre, that she wished she "hadn't seen my city in that state". I can understand - the shots of Manhattan completely uninhabited, wild, and decaying are amazing and horrible. Still, one can't take their eyes off of Will Smith. He's believeable as a military medical genius, he's believable as a survivorist, he's believable as someone whose sense of self is slipping away.

That said, the movie falls off at the end. The questions of faith and science are nice touches (a la "Lost), and without spoiling it for you I can reveal that other characters appear in various states of humanity. The way the movie MIGHT have ended, however, is highly preferable.

Take some time, if you've seen "I Am Legend", and watch the alternate ending. I believe this was how the movie should have finished. Now to read the books!