I suppose if you have to watch a movie about a man wandering around aimlessly as the last man on Earth, then it might as well be someone who can hold an audience’s attention like the charismatic Will Smith, who stars in newly released sci-fi thriller I am Legend.

Seasoned actors Vincent Price and Charlton Heston took on the role with less success in previously cheesy adaptations of the Richard Matheson sci-fi novel, 1964’s “The Last Man on Earth” and 1971’s “The Omega Man,” respectively. And Smith’s fans can only hope the modern version doesn’t become the trifecta.

Smith tries his best to conjure both pathos and absurd laughs as he plays Robert Neville, a military scientist whose immunity to a deadly virus leaves him stranded in Manhattan with only his trusted German shepherd dog “Sam” for companionship as well as hissanity.

Yet the story line gets dull pretty quick as the role in which Smith plays has obviously been done before. Still, the visual effects implemented by director Francis Lawrence are what truly dazzle the eye and help maintain some level of interest through 1 hour and 40 minutes of the PG-13 sci-fi action-adventure.

The film is filled with appealing CGI-enhanced images of Times Square, Washington Square Park and Tribeca as it makes the film eerily silent and still while a city covered in weeds provides for a gloomy, haunting backdrop. Also, the nighttime flashback scenes, compiled with hundreds of extras and vehicles beneath the Brooklyn Bridge are artistically controlled.

And just when you think things couldn’t get any worse, the “Infected,” or the ones who didn’t die from the virus but rather were transformed into shrieking, zombie-like figures, decide to show up. One advantage for Smith’s character is they only come out at night giving him the day to prepare for what’s to come at sun down: sheer terror.

This is where I Am Legend turns from a quiet meditation on the nature of humanity into a B-movie shock fest.

With the help of stark cinematography from Andrew Lesnie, Lawrence sucks you into this comatose version of the city that never sleeps. It’s totally disconcerting, but, at the same time, engrossing – watching Neville roam about with his dog and a hunting rifle as he patrols past Grand Central Terminal and billboards for “Wicked” and “Rent,” spurs the feeling that you have absolutely no idea about what is going to happen next.

Being the military man that he is, Neville has his routine down to fine science with a daily radio broadcast seeking out any other survivors and alarms to warn him when the sun is about to set. But he’s also a human being who misses his wife and little girl, (Smith’s on-screen daughter is actually his own 7-year-old daughter, Willow), he lost during the city’s frantic evacuation a few years back.

The film is humanized with emotional undertones as Neville talks to his dog as if she were a friend (and come on, what dog person doesn’t do that anyway?) and there’s still bits of humor and common courtesy as he is polite enough to return the movies he borrows from his local video store before checking out new ones, (as if he’d be charged a late fee after an entire civilization has been wiped out).

By now, Neville can recite every word to “Shrek,” which is amusing and surreal – one blockbuster star mimicking others. But he’s also achingly lonely, talking to store mannequins as if they were real people, not unlike Tom Hanks and his beloved volleyball Wilson in “Cast Away.” For all his charm and personality, Smith doesn’t quite have the emotional depth of Hanks to pull it off completely, but he does make you sense his pain nonetheless.

Then Neville’s peaceful if tenuous grasp on reality and sanity are disrupted when he realizes the “Infected” have begun adapting, and aren’t just hiding in abandoned buildings anymore but rather banding together to destroy him.

Neville keeps trying to capture them one at a time to test different cures on them in his underground lab, but with no success. And he’s not the only one they want – again, if you’re a dog person, this’ll be agonizing to watch so perhaps it’s best to look away.

Like in nearly all sci-fi flicks, there is one guy who’s the biggest and toughest of the “Infected” and serves as their leader (Dash Mihok, known appropriately as Alpha Male). And when other survivors do finally respond to Neville’s daily radio calls, they happen to be a beautiful woman, who is played by Alice Braga, and her son, who are about the same age as his wife and daughter.

The three of them hunker down in Neville’s fortified brownstone for one last apocalyptic battle with the baddies. Lots of explosions and rapid gunfire ensue – sound and fury signifying nothing, which is a shame, since I Am Legend looked like it might have had something to say after all.

But in the end, the film doesn’t say much for itself. If you’re into high-tech graphic design or sci-fi then give this film a try and see for yourself. Otherwise “I am Legend” is less than legendary.

Lana Saipaia can be reached at [email protected]