Good and Disappointing

Rating: 8/10 (7 March 2008)

I went to see I Am Legend with much excitement having read the book and loved it. I loved the beginning. We get a good idea as to what caused this virus to take over humanity, and we see Smith's character Robert Neville in his day to day activities, which are mundane (as are most day to day activities). The Neville of the book is no super hero, but a moderately insane and understandably so, man who loses everyone he cares about in a plague that virtually destroys humanity. He finds himself to be the actual last man alive. What I loved most about the book was that it portrayed with some accuracy how one would react to being the only human alive. There is still the drive to keep on living and give yourself something to live for. We see the movie that Smith does this as well, in talking to the mannequins and giving himself a daily routine of shopping and hunting and disease curing to keep himself busy.
*Spoiler*Now beyond the mental state of Neville and the desolation of the city in which he lives, the movie strays very far, far from the book on which it is based. Theses creatures which are not defined to be the vampires that they are, have no interaction with the audience aside from being "monsters". The vampires of the book talked to Neville and called to him at night. Not these creatures though, they just live to eat. And why the crap are they awake during the day? That's when the Neville of the book would hunt and kill him, making him the antihero who dies in the end and gives you a sense that it could not have ended any other way! I was hopeful when the girl showed up that she would be a vampire like the Ruth of the book, but no, apparently she is some inexplicably superhuman chick who managed to save herself and this kid from the creatures for three years. She saves Smith and drives him home in the middle of the night managing to avoid these bloodthirsty inhuman machines and yet when there in the basement all her courage fades away and she is cowering on the ground with the boy?! If your going to stray beyond recognition from the book, at least make it believable!
I liked the movie as a Hollywood feel good action flick, but I loved the book as an introspective look at how someone would really react to being the last man alive. It's possible to like both but still disappointing to see such an unbelievable rendition of such an amazing book.