An average movie that could have been great.

Rating: 6/10 (25 December 2007)

This fairly average movie has nothing in common with Richard Matheson's novel other than a title and a basic premise. It is much more like an American version of 28 Days Later. Basically they have taken all the interesting elements from the novel and replaced them with standard Hollywood fare. It has all the usual jumpy scenes and the requisite dose of action. The plot is fairly clichéd and simplistic, hubris in the form of a modified virus destroys civilisation and so forth. Certainly not an exceptional film and disappointing seeing as a straight adaption of the source material would have been infinitely more interesting. It has it's good points though. Some nice post apocalyptic New York City imagery and a surprisingly decent performance by Will Smith shore it up. These factors set it apart from the average B movie. The cinematography and sound are overall quite good however the CG is overdone and quite plastic looking. Fans of the genre will enjoy it, fans of the book will be distracted by what this could have been.