Good Version Of A Familiar Story

Rating: 8/10 (2 December 2008)

I've seen Vincent Price in 1964's "The Last Man On Earth" but not Charlton Heston's "The Omega Man." Along with "I Am Legend" all three are versions of the same sci-fi story. I liked the Price movie, although I thought there were a number of holes in the story which made it difficult to accept. For the most part, "I Am Legend" avoids those holes (although it does leave some unanswered questions - probably deliberately, since the disease and its effects are supposed to be mysteries.) Will Smith was excellent as Robert Neville, a military scientist who is one of the last survivors of a deadly disease that spread rapidly around the world. The disease started as a miracle cure for cancer until the side effects - described in the movie as being like the beginning of rabies - started to develop. Eventually, the disease causes mutations and even physical changes which leave the afflicted living a sort of wild-animal like existence, hunting after dark for victims to kill and devour. Neville for some reason is immune to the disease and fights both to find a cure for it and to survive.
Compared to the '64 version, I thought this was by far the superior movie. Neville's psychological deterioration struck me as more realistic than anything portrayed by Price, the afflicted humans are more believable than the zombie-like vampires come back from the dead in the '64 movie, and overall this movie is far more frightening (and yet not particularly bloody). Smith was often putting on a virtual one man show, and he did so quite successfully. One could say that Neville's ultimate fate was a bit too cliché for a Hollywood action movie, and while I appreciated the extremely hopeful end of the movie, things at that "survivors colony" in Vermont did seem far too "normal." (And, if that colony could survive because the virus couldn't survive the cold, then one assumes that we in Canada must have been quite fine, so I'll stop dreaming about the South Pacific and rejoice in the cold and snowy winters!) Overall, though, this was a pretty enjoyable ride. 8/10