Watchable but unnecessary

Rating: 6/10 (3 May 2009)

The book "I am Legend" has supposedly been made into a film three times (THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, THE OMEGA MAN as well as I AM LEGEND). However, all three are quite different from the story and in most ways they are inferior (ultimately missing the point of the book in the process). Had this Will Smith film actually stuck with the original story, it would have been well worth making. However, in many ways it was much closer to OMEGA MAN than the book. Now, considering that OMEGA MAN was a really cool sci-fi film AND the newest film didn't stick all that close to the book, you wonder why it was made in the first place. Oh, wait...it starred Smith, had a huge budget AND lots of special effects--that's apparently the only reason many films are made by Hollywood these days!! According to IMDb, they didn't even have a finished script before they began filming--and this just shows the contempt they had for the source material.
Now I am not saying that this is a bad film. It's very watchable and exciting--particularly if you have never seen OMEGA MAN. And, for people who care far more for special effects than plot, it is a pretty film. The scenes of the bridges leading out of Manhattan and the rest of the ruined city are incredibly realistic--too bad the story was actually supposed to take place in Los Angeles!
And, speaking of changes, he film also takes a lot of liberties including: making the plague victims more like mindless zombies than vampires, adding a dog to the story, completely changing the ending so as to make a point that is the opposite of the novel as well as attributing the plague to an accidental creation due to come cancer drug. Now granted, most of these mistakes (minus the dog) are in the other films--they were flawed as well. But, why keep distorting an excellent story and why make a film that looks better than the previous films BUT is essentially no better?!
My advice? Read the book and watch OMEGA MAN. Sure, OMEGA MAN is so unlike the original but it had a major cool factor. Perhaps it's because I am older, but seeing a crazed Charlton Heston machine gunning the zombies (led by the great Anthony Zerbe--a wonderful villain) is just more exciting than seeing Smith talking to his dog.