tremendously disappointing

Rating: 4/10 (18 December 2007)

There are only a few ways you can mess up a plot with only one survivor of a mass-epidemic, and this movie manages ruin this simple plot. First, how does the last man on earth spend his day? In this story he drives around chasing deer, or some animals, for some reason that's never clear. If it's for food, his hunting skills are pretty poor. Next we need to learn how he copes with being alone. In this, we have the benefit of having Sam, his dog, accompany him. It's not wrong to say that each scene with Sam works, and that when she's gone, the movie falls apart. When we learn that there's an enemy that wants to kill the last man, we suddenly learn that the enemy is so vastly superior in hunting and fighting skills that we wonder how the last man survived for as long as he did. It's here that the whole movie reveals the truth that there really isn't any story that makes sense. We learn that there may be survivors in the north because the virus can't survive the cold, but instead of confirming this news with a simple experiment, the last man and scientist, ignores it. Then we find that the area around his home is booby-trapped for a final confrontation, and again, we have to wonder how his superior enemy never stumbled upon the gigantic spot lights lining the street. Or even how the last man on earth managed to run multiple generators within his home without dying from carbon monoxide poisoning. The problem is that it takes so long to get us to a point where we discover that there really isn't any story that it's hard to admit that I wasted my time. But that's what really happened. The last man on earth wasn't very entertaining company.