Unfair Judgement?

Rating: 5/10 (3 January 2008)

It is always slightly unfair to judge the depth or detail of any adapted-film in comparison to the novel from which it is sourced.
However, it is still unfortunate that the new movie of "I Am Legend" decided not to concentrate on the most poignant aspects of the novel, or the many other script-versions of the story that have appeared over the past ten years. This version glibly glosses-over much of the engaging detail to provide an entertaining, although bland, story gaping with many holes  leaving us wondering & wanting for more.
The weather-worn collapse of New York and the encroachment of Nature was fantastically delivered. The virus was credibly explained, but we were left with very little understanding of the nature of the 'infected', themselves  and I found it personally very difficult to find these poorly CGI'd cookie-cutter-creatures disturbing or credible, when all looked like they'd been cloned in a video-game. Actors in good old-fashioned make-up is what was needed here.
But where on Earth was Neville's emotional journey? "I Am Legend" is famous as the story of an everyman confronting crisis. A man who has to deal with the loss of his wife & child, his friends, his culture and world. To find purpose again after everything that gave his life meaning has been lost ... and to still have to fight for that life every single day.
We get some nice glimpses of his struggle, but this should have been the engine which drove this story through to its end.
And speaking of the end, where was the novel's hidden vampire-community of which Neville becomes the inadvertent "boogey-man"? Where was reversal of fortune where Neville realises that the "monsters" were in fact just as scared of him as he of they ... and that he is in fact more of a monster than they are?
Further, Neville's death and the birth of a new form of humanity was the whole point of Matheson's original work. I understand that Hollywood fears unhappy-endings as box-office killers, but this isn't the new "Pretty Woman". The sci-fi/horror community want ideas, not pampering. Hollywood, please respect this niche-audience's intelligence and stop rewriting history/other people's works.
HAPPY endings aren't necessarily always GOOD endings.