A Disappointment

Rating: 7/10 (25 June 2008)

It's been a long time since I've seen "Omega Man" or read the original Matheson story, but I'd heartily recommend them as superior entertainment, while this... Well, if you've got nothing better to do, it's not TERRIBLE, but...
I have to agree with everybody who says this was all about the CGI, and not about the plot - or, in my opinion, the suspense. There's not enough characterization of the zombies, and too much of Robert Neville - I like Will Smith, but I didn't care for his rather hysterical interpretation, although the interplay with Sam was good. There was too much backstory on the virus (and Neville's family) and too little on the zombies. And things don't seem to have been too challenging for Anna and Ethan - nothing worth talking about, anyway! Ethan isn't really necessary in any way - Sam is the Richie character (I think it was Richie - anyway, it IS kind of a clever riff on the doofus who wanders off in search of the cat...)
I can't believe anybody respects the pacing. There are two moments of genuine suspense in the movie - Following the Deer, and the Copycat Trap - and both of them totally failed to have any shock value. Following the Deer turns out OK, while The Copycat Trap builds up and builds up, but then, well, up hops Bob and gets his gun, oh dear he drops it - oh, Sam isn't in as much trouble as we thought - oh, he was, was he - and we wind up waiting around for the dog to change, and then - well, that was that. Poignant, maybe (he has the recovered-rat antitoxin - why not Sam?) but suspenseful - are you kidding? And As for the film's finale, did we really need to see it? I think it was irrelevant (especially with the voice-over), and the prologue is also unnecessary - we could have spent the time getting a few real chills and thrills in.
Ruined New York is well done, but it's not like we haven't seen THAT before (couldn't this have been filmed in Detroit, without CGI?) The movie has a kind of moral, which has to do with Neville being wrong about what turns out to be true at the very end. There's a worthy idea there - nothing to do with Matheson's original idea, or the title of the film, of course - but there isn't enough supporting material in the rest of the story for it to be said to be the film's theme - and there's nothing else to the story, really - so why is Neville a legend? Apparently, it's the same reason he was on the cover of TIME magazine...