This was the best they could do???

Rating: 5/10 (20 June 2008)

I've seen a lot better post-Apocalyptic movies in my life. This film for me walks a thin line between Disappointment & Average. I was hoping for something of a mix between Castaway, Dawn of the dead, and 28 Days later. ultimately Im not quite sure what this was. personally I left the movie theater thinking I Am Legend was a little disappointed but also a bit overrated.
I Am Legend is based off a novel of the same title, in fact there have been two previous adaptations that were very successful; The last man on earth (Vincent Price/1964) & The Omega Man (Charlton Heston/1971). Neither weren't to faithful to the novel but they still worked because of the lead actors & the story. I was hopeful this movie would be more faithful to the novel. There were a few alterations from the novel that I didn't like, for example:
1. In the Novel the creatures are Vampires or Vampiric like, Not mutants. The mutants in this film were obviously fake! In an age of masterful CGI special effects, this is what they came up with!? I was not scared, intimidated, nor impressed by the mutants they looked like cartoon animations at times. If they were like the Vampires in 30 Days of night then this film would have been real scary.
2. The main Character Robert Neville is not a scientist in the novel, he's more of an average guy who finds himself the last survivor of a horrifying plague. In the film he spends time trying to find a cure. In the novel he spends most of his time foraging for supplies, hunting the vampires during the day, and fending them off every night when they siege his house. I like the novel version much better!!!
3. This movie take the title completely out of context to the novel. In the movie Neville becomes a legend to the last surviving race of humans for finding a cure to the disease. In the novel Neville hunts & kills so many vampires that he becomes a legend to the Vampires & the Human-Vampire hybrids, like Dracula & vampires were to humans.
In the beginning of this film a scientist states that they have found a cure for Cancer by engineering this super virus, and of course things begin to go terribly wrong. Man those scientists were really reckless in developing this virus because it was killing everyone that it infected and turned others into deformed mutants, I guess we were that desperate to finally cure cancer (how cliché). I liked the Omega Man premise of a disease brought upon by Biological-Warfare. This film I think missed an opportunity to explore our fears of disease & bio-weapons. Also it skimmed over the outbreak of the virus, so we didn't see really get to see much of the world falling apart from the pandemic. This film would have been a lot better if it followed the novel more closely, I loved the novel & this movie took too many liberties.
So what makes this movie so great? Will Smith. In a movie that in reality underachieved he was the one bright spot, in fact he carried this film. Smith's performance was magnificent. Smith's talent was on full display though. Imagine if you were the only person in th world isolated for years fighting for survival every single day, Will Smith captured that psyche so well. Also the scenery of an abandoned New York City was really stunning, could have been better but still awesome.
ultimately I have mixed feelings about this movie. It was good and I loved Will Smith's performance. Unfortunately this film just wasn't as good as I thought it would be. I mean really think about it, if you thought about how you could improve this film then it would have been so much more amazing. Was this really the best they could do? please there are far better & relevant Post-Apocalyptic films.