Clumsy Adaptation Of An Unfilmable Novel

Rating: 4/10 (21 March 2009)

The problem with filming Matheson's I AM LEGEND is that the original novel is so difficult to adapt for the silver screen . The novel deals with the last man alive - Neville - who is surrounded by vampires . There's little spoken dialogue and perhaps most problamatic of all is the fact that Neville is effectively the villain meaning that a cinema audience have to identify and empathise with a bad guy maliciously killing benign vampires . Obviously this is a step too far for a mainstream audience so any film producer filming this story needs to make Neville a good guy thereby destroying Matheson's original concept . I suppose movie studio's can justify themselves by the need to make a profit at the box office but there's other flaws that are impossible to tackle
First of all there's the lack of dialogue . Respected reviewers on this site including Bob The Moo have praised the first half of the movie with the isolation of Neville's lonely life as he drives through an empty New York but a story needs character interaction and a protagonist needs someone to talk to and the dialogue light , slow deliberate pace becomes very boring after a while and it's not helped by the lack of a soundtrack . Danny Boyle was much more effective with his dead London scenes in 28 DAY LATER
There is a character for Neville to talk to but it's not actually a human character - it's a dog . You know as soon as the dog is introduced it won't be seeing the end credits and so lack lustre screenwriter Akiva Goldsman mawkishly manipulates the audience in to feeling sorry for Fido when he becomes infected and has to be killed . It's so predictable certain audience members will have to stifle a yawn rather than reach for a tissue to dry their eyes
Even those people who have praised the first half have criticised the second half where we have characters who are introduced out of the blue . There's a lack of logic to this . The characters are aware that there's a sanctuary somewhere so why didn't these characters make a beeline for the sanctuary instead of sitting around hoping to get a radio message from Neville ? You'd think they were clairvoyants , either that or Goldsman is a rather insipid screenwriter
The other problem of the second half is when the infected/mutants/vampires are introduced . There is not one scene as far as I recall where the infected are never anything more than laughably bad CGI effects . It's ridiculous that this film supposedly cost $150 million and the director couldn't employ a few dozen extras in make up . Really if was a " walk on artiste " I would be angry about the use of CGI seen here
I AM LEGEND is a near impossible story to adapt but the producers should have at least tried to focus on what type of audience the film was produced for . It's not really a film does the book justice , nor is it one that will really appeal to fans of the post apocalyptic genre . There's also a distinct lack of action and tension and dare I say much entertainment . Despite its many flaws THE OMEGA MAN is a very entertaining movie and much superior to this remake