Most people will say the reason you must go see a movie like I Am Legend in theaters is to see the astonishing shots of a completely deserted New York City. A previous zombie movie, 28 Days Later, had impressively shown an abandoned London but this film one-ups that as it shows numerous blocks of empty cars in gridlock in New York. It even shows large fields of weeds that have grown right in front of a deserted Times Square as lions and deer have escaped from the zoo and have returned to their natural predator-prey relationship.

None of this would work, however, without the performance and presence of Will Smith, who, much like Tom Hanks did in Cast Away, carries the film on his more than capable movie star shoulders. He is not the first one to play Robert Neville, the hero of the famous sci-fi novel by Robert Matheson about the last surviving man on earth who is immune to a virus that has plagued the entire planet. But he is certainly far better at essaying complex emotions while playing a charismatic action hero than either of his predecessors, Vincent Price in 1964’s The Last Man on Earth and Charlton Heston in 1971’s The Omega Man.

That is why he is able to turn what seems like a typical Hollywood treatment of making Neville into a resourceful military scientist to his advantage. As played by Smith, it is a welcome approach that delves into the intellectual capacity of humans and the responsibility that comes with it but is often forgotten. It is Neville’s journey not only to fight against the perpetual loneliness that plagues his mind but also, in a way, to compensate for the arrogance of humanity to play God in science (represented in the opening clip with a scientist played by Emma Thompson smugly explaining how the virus was supposed to be a cure for cancer genetically engineered from the measles virus).

To keep himself occupied, Neville observes a strict dietary regimen, exercises on a schedule, goes out hunting for deer (sometimes being upstaged by a lion that gets to it first), and talks to his only living companion, a dog named Samantha. He broadcasts on his radio, calling for any other survivors to meet him at a pier at the sunniest point of the day. At night, he attempts to find a vaccine for the virus with his immune blood after hunting some infected rabid dogs and a few infected humanoids as well. And every now and then, he has flashbacks to when he is trying to have his family safely escape the viral quarantine of New York (which generates two of the most memorably emotional scenes in the film).