CGI: New York

Rating: 5/10 (18 December 2007)

This is the first of three film versions of Richard Matheson's "I am Legend" to use the story's title. However, it's an even bigger departure from the book than THE OMEGA MAN.
That doesn't have to be a problem; the story here is serviceable. It just isn't well told. The CGI rendering of an abandoned New York is the most impressive thing in the movie. Will Smith gives his usual stalwart, likable, performance, but the film never really grabbed me.
There are two significant problems. One is the lack of music. Most scenes have no background score, and this is clearly done to reinforce Smith's isolation. It doesn't really work, though; somehow the film is a bit too quiet, until you finally hit the action sequences at the end.
And there's the other problem. The first two film versions (THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, with Vincent Price, and THE OMEGA MAN, with Charlton Heston), retained Matheson's premise of scientifically created vampires. This film dispenses with this and replaces the vampires with screaming CGI monsters, indistinguishable from the Rage Virus victims in 28 DAYS LATER and its sequel. The atmospherics of the original story, and the haunting of Neville, who has to spend his nights listening to the vampires call his name, and assault his fortress on a nightly basis, are lost in favor of a routine monster-shootfest.
It's not a bad movie, but it's not a particularly effective one. Since Will Smith spends almost the entire movie talking to his dog, the story feels flat and one-dimensional. Even Will Smith's winning personality can't entirely rescue it.