I like the dog

Rating: 6/10 (3 May 2013)

There are too many loose threads. Why does Neville (Will Smith) have one-man bio-lab in the basement of his New York Apartment building? He says 1% of the world's population are like him immune. Wouldn't it make sense to go to a secure government lab with other immune scientists guarded by immune soldiers? They could work a lot faster together. He keeps telling the audience he can't leave New York because it is ground zero, but British scientist Krippen (Emma Thomson) said she did 10,009 cancer clinical trials using the virus. Were they all in New York?
This film is based on an excellent book which spawned two other film versions. The most famous of these is "Omega Man" panned for being unfaithful to the book, but Heston's Neville clearly was going mad from loneliness. You could feel his despair. Smith's Neville on the other hand has a sweet dog and they seem pretty happy together.
Things change halfway through when the dog dies. Some viewers are really offended by this: Kill six billion people. Fine. It's just a movie. Kill a dog. OMG l'horreur! It's actually a very touching scene. Now if only the rest of the movie was like this.
But after this it makes even less sense. A girl and boy find him and somehow rescue him from a huge mob of zombies. We don't see how this happens. One moment Alpha zombie has his jaws around Neville's throat. Crash cut to Nevile waking up in his apartment to the smell of bacon and eggs.
Smith doesn't seem right for the role. He's convincing in the physical and military roles he plays, but putting on a white lab coat doesn't turn him a scientist. He's missing that spark of curiosity and geekiness that every scientist has. His humor, singing Bob Marley, classic Will Smith, doesn't work here. His real-life son has a cameo but the dialog isn't convincing: Kids don't talk like that, and it's hard to take a kid in dreadlocks seriously. In another movie they could work well together, but I think they're both miscast here. Some have praised Smith's acting here, but it didn't work for me perhaps because he would be teary one scene and back to his usual carefree self the next.
Too much of what Neville does doesn't make sense. He broadcasts on the radio for other survivors to come to New York to meet him, but when they do he doesn't believe there were any survivors and is angry they cooked some of his bacon without asking. And why broadcast on AM which has limited range. Why not short wave? In some scenes he is mad with loneliness, but on others he's having a great time with his dog and seems as happy as a guy enjoying free time while his girlfriend is out of the house.
Poor vampires. Ever since Anne Rice turned them into teen idols no one can take them seriously any more. Let's face it. If a vampire knocked on your door you wouldn't invite them inside, but you would offer them a Bloody Mary, sit on the porch and have a fascinating chat about their long and no-doubt very interesting life. Compared to your average high school boy, no wonder every girl wants a vampire boyfriend! And so here zombies replace vampires.
The CGI is really bad. The lions look fake, and the zombies look like a video game. Directors everywhere are misusing CGI. Here the apocalyptic scenery is amazing, but the rest really detracts. Hollywood really needs to roll back the CGI. It doesn't impress us any more.
The biggest cop out here is the ending. There are two of these. The original ending was more faithful to the book: Neville realizes the zombies still have some human feelings. But this tested poor with audiences, so they replaced it with an alternate ending where he commits suicide using an incendiary grenade. It explodes burning him and every zombie in a large room, and yet the boy and girl right next him are unharmed and unsinged. It leaves too many lose threads unexplained, like the earlier scene where zombies set a snare trap for him.
The religious themes are annoying: God killed six billion people but still wants to save a few of us. If you're going to take that line, do it like Stephen King did it in "The Stand" and do it all the way. (And to hell with the other reviewer who said he didn't like Smith's character because he was an atheist!)
It would have been fascinating to see how the virus spread, but this isn't really shown. All we see is flashbacks of Smith evacuating his family to a helicopter. Even that doesn't make sense: If they're sealing off the city, why let a few people out anyway? Even if they are Will Smith's family? Especially when one of the tests just showed his wife may be infected?
The movie has too many holes and is unsatisfying, but it has its moments and is watchable. I "enjoy" post-apocalyptic movies so despite its many flaws I don't regret watching it. I just think it could have been done much better.
My recommendation. The book is short. Read that instead. Watch "Contagion": Long and dry but fascinating nevertheless. Watch Stephen King's TV Adaption of "The Stand". If you have watched it check out the other film versions: "The Omega Man" and "The Last Man on Earth". Both have their faults, but it's interesting to compare.