Consistently good, but with a bitter aftertaste

Rating: 7/10 (24 October 2009)

I have not read the novel, though I am growing increasingly interested in doing so. This does a fairly solid job of creating a post-apocalyptic world, as well as building up a convincing atmosphere of isolation. The plot is engaging, and if you ignore the couple of hiccups in it, this has a thing or two(and not terribly much more) to say, and does so well. This is well-paced, and never loses the audience, in spite of twists that changes it all in unexpected ways. It's exciting, scary, and the psychology is credible and this almost dares to have something as rare as an unstable character in the lead of a Hollywood movie. Smith gives one of his best performances to date. So what about this bothers me? The effects that do not at any time cease to look fake? Not really. Taking what I understand is an excellent and smart book and, to an extent, turning it into a somewhat simplistic Summer blockbuster? Well, we're getting closer. No, the reason is that they discarded the brilliant and poignant moral of the author, Richard Matheson's original text. They replaced it with a bland, clichÃ©d ending of the sort we've seen since the concept of storytelling was first thought up by our species. Yes, I know. Test audience reaction holds part of the blame. Here's the thing; this didn't have to take that title. They could have called this any number of things, and people would, perhaps rightly so, accuse it of being a rip-off, as opposed to, as we are now, saying how poor an "adaptation" it is. If the ideas are not communicated properly in a version of a previously released work, isn't it merely "inspired by"? Shouldn't it be? I have not watched either of the other two films based on it, however, it is entirely possible that I will do so. There is a little moderate language. This also has bloody, if not overly graphic, violence. The DVD contains four animated comics that I will review on their individual pages here on the site. I recommend this to fans of the genres of science fiction and thriller, and/or fiction involving dystopian settings. And I suggest making the choice if you want to enjoy this for what it is, or find out what the writer meant for it to be. 7/10