Solid popcorn flick - but should have been soooo much better.

Rating: 6/10 (3 November 2010)

I can't explain just why the finale of I Am Legend sucks without major spoilers, so search for it on oneguyrambling.com and see exactly why this film is so frustrating to me.
When the initial teasers for this hit the cinema I looked into it, I knew nothing about the book but was still really, really looking forward to it. I wanted it to be "All-Time" good.
So it was disappointing when I finally caught it and saw how they managed to still mess it up.
Will.I.Am-Legend Smith, plays Robert Neville, the only apparent survivor of the latest cinematic pandemic. This time a botched cure for cancer backfires, killing a large proportion of the planet and turning most of the rest into enraged zombies by night, and hibernating spooky guys by day.
It is three years since the virus hit, and NYC, the source of the initial outbreak is long since quarantined. Neville walks the deserted streets by day, now overrun by wildlife (Lions?) and vegetation, and hides in his home by night along with the family dog and only buddy Sam. The family and their destiny are introduced and explained piece by piece in Neville's dream sequences.
As Neville was part of the cause of the initial outbreak, (just how responsible is never exactly explained), he feels it is his duty to find a cure, and he runs around the clock experiments in his basement on rats. To date none are successful, though Neville carefully documents all tests and file notes results, and his diary events on camera.
In between experiments and hiding, Neville and Sam roam the streets, hunting, shopping and foraging for supplies and things of use. Scenes were Neville visits the video shop show both how long he has been alone and just how Castaway bored and frazzled he has become.
So where have they gone wrong? Well so far, so good, in fact even though nothing really happens in the first 30 odd minutes we feel like it is building, and we get an idea of Neville's circumstances and feelings of isolation.
In fact around 25-30 minutes in the best scene in the film occurs, in chasing a deer Sam runs into a dark building, despite Neville's cries of stop. Given the choice between running and losing his best friend Neville opts to save his lone amigo and heads in. We don't really know by this time what the bad guys are and what they do, so as Neville creeps carefully through the rooms whispering for Sam we feel genuine tension, even when he finally comes across the huddled, shivering baddies.
In the ensuing escape Neville catches an infected (it is apparent that he has set traps at various places), and takes her back to run further tests.
Things come to a head when Neville falls into one of his own traps, and the subsequent escape doesn't go well.
In my opinion it all goes wrong from here.
Neville decides "enough" and takes his death wish to the streets at night, even though he kills many infected he inevitably loses through sheer weight of numbers Except - and without giving the game away - Neville himself says that it has been over 1,000 days since he saw other survivors, and the events that follow are simply too ludicrous to be coincidence, even when they feebly try to explain them away as such.
The bottom line: Stoopid Hollywood.
The ending is over the top and deeply flawed, totally ignoring the source material on which the film is based in favour of BOOM BANG CRASH crapulence.
I've watched this twice now, and each time I enjoyed the build up and let down in a major way by the compromises and short-cuts taken in the second half, even when I know it's coming now.
Final Rating – 6 / 10. A golden opportunity to make a big budget zombie movie (with credibility) wasted by a short cut ending.
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