The opening of Stephanie Zacharek's review of the film I Am Legend starts with a rather inane rant about nature and how it incorporates itself into our urban lives. She tries to tie this to the movie by pointing out that there are animals living in the city after the main character Robert Neville (Will Smith) is the only person left in New York and possibly the world. Never does the author make a coherent point about this, or really anything else in the review. The piece jumps from one theory or conclusion to the next with barely a coherent transition. In one paragraph it seems as though Ms. Zacharek enjoyed the movie and the next it seemed she despised it. To be fair, the review does state that the movie feels like two different films "seamed together, a la Frankenstein," which explains the schizophrenic treatment but does not excuse it.
Stylistically the review is plain and lacking any punch or pizazz. The gimmicky opening never even has a chance of working because it does not really draw anyone in despite its lack of relevance to the review or the movie. There is no sense of flow to move the reader along and trying to read the two pages was drudgery.
All the negatives being said, the review did put forth the writer's opinions on the movie and expressed who might like the movie and who might not and why. It also told what fans of the original novella by Richard Matheson might think of the movie. There are also some interesting thoughts on action movies in general and how I Am Legend deviates from this. But overall there is too little good to make this a compelling review.

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