"I Am Legend" misses the point of its title

Rating: 4/10 (16 December 2007)

None of the other adaptions of Richard Matheson's novelette stayed particularly true to the original story. "Omega Man" and "The Last Man on Planet Earth" at least seemed to understand the original even if they decided to downplay the stories central theme. "I AM Legend", the only film to actually use the title of the novelette doesn't even seem to understand its own name, tacking on a stupid half hearted attempt to find a new reason for the name in the final minute and a half. It transforms the story questioning what it is to be a hero or a villain, a human being or a monster into a bad version of a remake of a Romero zombie movie.
Deserted New York did look fairly cool and the film moved along well enough, but that's hardly enough to rise above its poor construction and Hollywood blockbusterization of the original material.