A Superior Remake of "The Last Man on Earth" and "The Omega Man"

Rating: 8/10 (13 June 2017)

This movie begins with a scientist announcing a cure for cancer on television for all the world to see. Unfortunately, three years later the cure mutates into a deadly plague and kills almost everyone left on earth. And those who aren't killed are turned into creatures similar to zombies-only very fast and agile. However, as luck would have it, an Army doctor named "Robert Neville" (Will Smith) finds that he is one of the few people who is immune and as a result drives through the desolated city of New York with a dog named "Sam" as his only companion. Naturally, being a doctor he keeps himself busy trying to find a cure for those who have become infected while at the same time looking for others who might have escaped the plague all together. Then one day events soon begin to overtake him. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film is the second remake of "The Last Man on Earth" which was filmed in 1964 and remade as "The Omega Man" in 1971. Although these two films were pretty good in their own right, I have to say that this particular movie was definitely the best of them all. For starters, as might be expected for a motion picture in this day and age, the CGI was clearly far superior. More importantly however was the acting of Will Smith which carried the day and subsequently resulted in his winning a Saturn Award for "Best Actor". Likewise, the movie itself was nominated by that same awards committee for "Best Science Fiction Film" as well. In short, this was an extremely good movie and I have rated it accordingly.