Didn't live up to it's potential

Rating: 6/10 (24 December 2007)

**Spoilers** I read "I Am Legend" at least three times growing up and loved it each time. I went to see "Omega Man" with great anticipation and left with great disappointment.
I thought that this time they'd get it right, that this time Hollywood would recognize that "I Am Legend" is a great work of fiction and can stand on it's own. That for once they wouldn't mess with a good thing. That for once they'd realize that they really can't do it better, they're really not smarter than the original author, and just stick to the game plan. I was wrong and once again, scriptwriters who think they are better writers than the original author and in reality can't hold a candle, missed a chance at a classic.
That being said, I didn't hate this movie, it had some good things going for it. I thought Will Smith gave a great performance, especially considering that for most of the movie all he had to work with was a dog and some mannequins. The scenes of a deserted New York City were very well done. The beginning of the movie created the perfect atmosphere for what the story called for. And then, they screwed it all up; The CGI effects were cheesy at best, the nightstalkers didn't look believable at all. And they're behavior was so far over the top that it stopped being scary after their first few scenes and became annoying and even comical. I understand they were supposed to be sub-human monsters but come on, all they did was scream and slam into things. Even real animals don't act that way.
The movie never developed the story line, it hinted at the fact that the nightstalkers were "evolving" but left it at that; hints.
And then the plot holes; Robert Neville made a daily broadcast announcing his presence in NYC, this in fact was what eventually brought the woman and child to look for him. Why then didn't this commune of survivors in Vermont receive his signal and follow up on it? Another plot hole; Neville as at the dock, at night, fighting the nightstalkers in an obvious attempt to die after losing his dog. There are dozens and dozens of zombies there trying to kill him, and yet a woman and a child manage to rescue him and drive away? How exactly did they accomplish that? The final act of the movie was the biggest disappointment for me. First, they turn to sermonizing at the end, the woman states that God has helped her and the boy, huh? And the ending was the biggest disappointment of all. The novel's ending is what makes it a classic, and where the title comes from by the way. The movie gives us a cookie cutter Hollywood happy ending and a lame voice over to try to tie the title into THEIR ending. It ruined all that came before it. And it was totally uncalled for, they could have just as easily stuck to the original ending and stayed true to the novel. This is what they should have done because whoever wrote this movie couldn't carry Richard Matheson's water...
It was better than "Omega Man" but still didn't come close to the novel. To Hollywood; please don't make anymore movies from classic works of fiction unless you're going to pay attention to what made them classics in the first place.