Third Adaptation of Matheson's Novel

Rating: 10/10 (30 April 2008)

This is an awesome movie.
The story comes from the 1954 Richard Matheson novel of the same title, and has been twice adapted officially, in 1964 as "The Last Man on Earth" with Vincent Price and in 1975 as "The Omega Man" with Charlton Heston. The novel's lesser prodigy is just about every zombie movie you've ever seen, from George Romero's Dead series to movies like 28 Days Later.
In short, there is really nothing original in the story, but what it lacks in that, it more than makes up in suspense, action and execution.
This film is true to Matheson's vision in that it shows the hero's attempt to stay alive under difficult circumstances, not only fighting to find food and fight off the monsters, but to maintain what little is left of his sanity. In Matheson's novel, the monsters were more classical vampires (Matheson even came up with logic as to why they would be repelled by crosses and garlic). Here they are more a cross between vampires, zombies and orcs.
What sells this movie more than the standard zombie flick that Hollywood seems to churn out with tedious regularity is Wil Smith. He carries this movie as a man who has endured unbelievable horrors but never gives up.
There are deviations. In Matheson's book, Neville hunts the vampires with the intent of staying alive. Attempting to cure them is an afterthought later in the book. IN this film, he is trying to cure the disease all along. If you want to see a closer adaptation of the book, you should probably watch the 1964 version.