Beyond The Omega Man...(***POSSIBLE SPOILERS***)

Rating: 10/10 (14 December 2007)

Years ago, THE OMEGA MAN scared the bejeezus out of me, then again, I was young and even seeing somewhat dated visions of an empty world and rather badly done shots of people collapsing from a viral attack, still scared me. I AM LEGEND, which is the third movie based on the Matheson book, I Am Legend, really is scary for the here and now and thanks to some inventive photography and CG effects, we see a grim but fascinating vision of a completely abandoned New York City from the get-go. A well intentioned virologist Dr Krippen(played uncredited by Emma Thompson) in a news clip as the film's opening production tags play, shows a quick "human interest" story as a TV host talks innocently(and somewhat disbelievingly) with her, about her success with "curing cancer with a genetically engineered 'friendly' Measles virus" and that this was administered to over 10,000 cancer patients who are now "Cancer free". Cut to three years later and a dead, overgrown NYC with Will Smith speeding around it in a new Mustang(In THE OMEGA MAN, Chuck Heston sped around LA in a new 1972 Mustang, one of the film's many homages to it's predecessor) we see the extent of Krippen's horrible mistake to mess with and trust the nature of viruses-which can do mutate without prediction. Will Smith is Robert Neville, military virologist who witnessed the end of mankind-he's watching a tape of news as the illness begins to mutate and media is becoming alarmed. Krippen's Virus had a bizarre side effect-it mutated and became a contagious, airborne rabies-like illness that either kills outright or drives it's victims to become rage-filled, blood/fluid drinking mutants who hide in the shadows and only come out at night. (In THE OMEGA MAN it turned them into psychotic hippies called "The Family" styled after Charles Manson who was still hot news at the time-films are products of their own time) The virus spread very fast as we see in quick flashbacks(Omega Man was told in several flashbacks as effective). Mannequins play a role in THE OMEGA MAN, and they do in I AM LEGEND.
It is Smith's amazing acting talent that holds one riveted. It did me. The "mutants" are styled after the running infected in 28 DAYS LATER the only difference-and the film's drawback-is that too much CGI is used here and we're now so used to seeing CG in movies, that it appears that is what it is. In 28 DAYS LATER and it's sequel 28 WEEKS LATER, dancers were used as the running, screaming rage infected victims to much better effect. The CG FX shine in the visions of a ruined NYC, with grass and weeds everywhere, wildlife roaming, and destroyed bridges thanks to the military quarantine of the city. Obviously, it did little good as we overhear in a flashback, the President saying that "every major world city has taken the same action". Smith reminds us later, in dialog, "nothing was supposed to happen the way it did" It's a frightening vision, and I think the point being made was if, in reality, the Bird Flu hit and became easy to transmit, such scenes of sheer pandemonium, in larger cities would not be so much fiction. It's a terrific film.