Will Smith has come a long way from his early acting days on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Don’t get me wrong, Fresh Prince was the dude that every cat in high school in the late 1980s wanted to be like, but let’s not forget, you can actually catch will mouthing the lines of his co-stars while anticipating his next line. But after the first season he definitely stepped up his acting.

Now in 2007, I Am Legend, Will continues to prove that not only is he a lock for a big box office hit, but you can count on seeing a great performance in a film that’s well worth your hard-earned dollars.

Legend is another one of those films on Smith’s resume that wil go down as an acting triumph in a good film (Ali, Pursuit of Happyness, to name others).

I Am Legend, directed by Francis Lawrence, is the story of Robert Neville, a sole survivor of a world dominating virus created by man, that initially takes out 588 million people in 2009, and was originally created to somehow cure cancer. In 2012, Neville (a former scientist) dedicates his life to surviving for the sake of the human race, since he’s somehow immune to the virus and those who have been infected, and attempts to find a cure. In order to find a cure he must seek out the infected at night, where he runs the risk of being overtaken by the zombie-like creatures.

Legend is a fairly slow paced film that allows you to get a better understanding of Neville and his strong desire to find a cure for the virus. We follow him throughout the day, hunting, shopping for video rentals, cooking from himself and his trusty companion Sam (the family german shepherd) , and finally making observations and testing subjects in his basement lab.

Will Smith plays the role of Neville convincingly, which is hard to do when you’re sharing the majority of your screen time with nonhumans (reminisent of Tom Hanks in 2000’s Cast Away). It’s easy to say that Smith has definitely become on of the top actors in Hollywood today, a far cry from the Fresh Prince.

I Am Legend is a great film to see at the theater with its spooky, creepy aura, although it is worthy of quality repeats in your DVD player when it is released (likely in the Spring). Go see it if you already haven’t.

I Am Legend: @@@1/2 (out of 5)