I Am Legend -- 2007 -- PG-13

Here is a fascinating one. A virus hailed as the miracle cure to cancer has an unexpected side effect: it’s deadly to anyone not naturally immune to it. We’re left in a very empty New York City with only one man and his dog to lead us through the story. 2/3’s of the tale is a one man story, and they pull it off incredibly well as we feel the loneliness of his situation of being what appears to be the only person left alive on Earth.

But we’re quick to learn he isn’t truly alone. Something else is out there. Something causes him to reinforce the doors and windows to his home with steel shutters and locks. Is it just the wildlife running free out there, or is there something else out there at night? What else did this virus create?

We have one character, really. And his backstory is laid out very clearly in the way of flashbacks to how the world, and New York, got to be the way it was and well as setting us his personal situation and what happened to his family. This sub story is revealed in little bites to make us curious as to whether his family is out there or not.

Really, the heart of the story is his looking to find a cure for the viral condition that’s out there and showing us the world he lives in. There’s a lot for us to discover as he does little more than go about his daily life, and really, the fact that it’s his daily life makes it all the more interesting as we are consistently wowed by the weird world science has created for them.

As could be expected in a situation like this, we also find that not only is his world messed up, but he is slowly but surely losing his mind. This is also given in little bites, but we get the idea that he not only is subject to some of the rules of this world, but he has created some rules of his own that serve to give him some measure of human interaction that he desperately desires, but cannot have in a world popuated by one. Apparently, his dog is just not enough to talk to, but this microcosm he made for himself almost leads to his downfall.

It’s a movie that gives the worst case scenario to a miracle drug gone horribly wrong, and makes us wonder whether all things should be cured or whether life is just life and we should leave well enough alone. Curing cancer may be the ultime milestone in medical science, but a cure that leads to a decimation of the world’s population is hardly worth it.