Did they even bother reading the book? (spoliers of both book and movie revealed)

Rating: 4/10 (24 January 2008)

I Am Legend is meant to be based on the brilliant book by Richard Matheson. The novel is about Robert Neville, the last man on earth and his battle for his sanity and against the vampires the people have become. It's one of my favourite novels. When the trailers appeared for this, any thoughts I had of really liking this disappeared, but I'd hoped for a good movie anyway....
In the movie, Robert Neville is the last survivor in New York. A virus has wiped out the world's population, and those that didn't die but became infected have become creatures that come out at night (the movie I don't think calls them vampires). Neville, a military scientist before the devastation tries to create a cure for those infected, while trying to keep his sanity in a world with no-one to talk too apart from his dog. Can he create a cure, or will the creatures or his sanity get him in the end?
The movie does get a couple of plus points. The idea of giving him a dog to talk with throughout the movie is a good idea. The effects showing a devastated New York are also impressive. Will Smith is a good actor, and hold your attention on screen.
But sadly, that's it.
First off, the CGI creatures are awful. It's some of the worst effects work I've seen in sometime, which considering this is a big Hollywood movie is a major disappointment.
The changes made from the novel by Akiva Goldsman (whom I'll never forgive for Batman & Robin) and Mark Protosevich actually weaken the story. In the book, the vampires are Neville's neighbors who actually spend the nights taunting him, hoping to make him come out at night and face them. Here the creatures don't speak at all, just make noises.
But the worst, the absolute worst for me was the ending.
The novel has one of the best endings I've ever read, as Neville realizes he's become the bogeyman to a new breed of humanity, were before it was the vampires. The movie doesn't even try to use this ending. Instead Neville sacrifices himself to save a woman and child, whom he gives a possible cure to save the world.
I can see why they didn't use the novel ending. Simply put it doesn't work here because of the dreadful way the infected humans have become CGI monsters. The intelligence of the creatures being lost, makes the book ending useless.
To be fair, it goes for a downbeat ending which is rare in big Hollywood movies, but then even lets that down, by ending with the possibility of hope for humanity. Now this may seem like giving the audience a more happier thought as they leave at the end, but all it made me do, was think 'Ah, setting up a sequel are they?' This is the third movie version of this tale. I've not seen the Vincent Price version, 'The Last Man On Earth' but have seen 'The Omega Man'. Of the ones I've seen, I don't think either have done the book properly. In fact the only decent version of the tale I've seen was a Simpsons version 'The Homega Man!' And for a book regarded as a classic of the horror/sci-fi genre that is a damning fact.