Will Smith: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

4. Robert Neville - I Am Legend

I Am Legend isn’t a great movie. It wastes a thrilling sci-fi concept, boasts some of the most unengaging creature design imaginable and the butchering of the ending is legend (pun very much intended).

But through all that Smith is solid, especially in the first half where it’s just him and Sam working their way around an empty New York populated only by those zombie-vampire things, where he calmly and methodically deals with surmounting problems. Even the saccharine flashbacks to his lost family back an emotional punch.

Heck, even when things take a turn for the crap in the final act, he’s still a likeable reluctant hero. It’s just a shame the rest of the film doesn’t come in around him and instead has to go the usual Smith-movie hero route.