A lost opportunity to make Matheson's story great again

Rating: 7/10 (19 January 2008)

Not many know that of all three versions made of "I am legend" the one that more closely captures the spirit of Matheson's original novel is actually the one with Vincent Price, "The Last man on Earth", dating back to 1964 and that pales in comparison to the latest for its total lack of special effects. However, Vincent Price alone is intense enough to convey so effectively the utmost terror of human isolation, and the atmosphere in this relatively forgotten movie, shot in a suburb of Rome built up by none other than Mussolini, is at times far scarier than the CGI - ridden blockbuster. This is I think is what makes "I am legend" today some kind of lost opportunity to resurrect the Matheson masterpiece, as halfway through the beautifully photographed movie it ends up slipping in the cliché of computer graphics zombies - themselves not even overly original or particularly scary in concept. While Will Smith is fantastic in his portrayal of Dr. Neville, his wonderful performance gets pitifully overridden by a showcase of digital effects that was not only unnecessary, but redundant, confusing and more than anything else at the antithesis of what Matheson had imagined his metropolitan vampires to be.