Man vs. virtual vampires...?

Rating: 3/10 (19 December 2007)

Just when I thought that Michael Bay had cemented forever his place as the king of Second Unit Cinema, along comes I AM LEGEND. $150 million worth of fx- to what end? I've gone back and rated THE OMEGA MAN higher than I had before I saw the (progressively-worsening) trailers for this one. I now see it for the towering achievement it truly is. The Corringtons (who, together, can't hold a candle to the writings of the grandest of the Grand Masters of Horror, Richard Matheson) dumbed down the original story for a 1971 audience and the witless wonders behind this one apparently didn't bother to go back and read the book: they simply used the Corrington script as their jumping off point (if only!). Casting a lead whose credentials are questionable at best didn't help. Opting to turn the vampires of the novel into cgi mutants may've seemed to the filmmakers to be yet another stroke of genius- but it wasn't. By a mile. Only someone whose tastes run to videocy (video game idiocy) could truly appreciate the monsters in this one. (There are some great shots of a deserted New York city- but, with a price tag of $5 million, there ought to be... At the very least.) Dumber even than THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, I AM LEGEND reeks.