Ill-Informed Gadfly

Yawn. If I’d believed for a second the marketing that suggested this movie, with Will Smith fighting off zombie-vampires in a post-apocalyptic New York, was some kind of action-packed art film, I’d be disappointed. “I Am Legend” is thoroughly commercial, machine-tooled for maximum sensation. Yes, it creates a profound sense of loneliness, with striking images of Smith moving through a deserted, rapidly greening Manhattan. But director Francis Lawrence (”Constantine”) is afraid to maintain that mood, breaking it up consistently with loud noises, cloying emotion and elementary chase sequences. “I Am Legend” shows little imagination beyond the stark setup — a virus that kills off most of humankind and turns the rest, with the exception of Smith’s military scientist, into lithe, ravenous zompires. (Or vambies, if you prefer.) Within its series of tenuously connected set pieces, it manages to pander to every demographic — most emphatically to the religious and to those with short attention spans. Only those looking for any evidence of a personal vision or ambition beyond robust box-office receipts will leave unsatisfied.