Waste of a great story

Rating: 4/10 (24 May 2008)

Filmed 3 times, the original story is a classic. I've seen all 3 films multiple times. Also have read the story maybe 10 times. The first follows the story the best and for an old movie the vampires and effects are not bad. The Second movie is also excellent, and again, effects are not bad for a 70s picture. What is so frustrating about todays movies is that they have the ability to do effects that are light years beyond what people had in the 60s and 70s and yet manage to make flat, poorly told stories. In the 60s film you can almost taste how lonely Vincent Price is and he has a scene when he starts to laugh and then rolls into crying and it is just really powerful. Then the second movie, Omega Man with Heston, He has some really great development, the isolation "There is no phone damn it!" and spending his days watching the same movie until he can repeat the lines. Then you get to this movie, BLAH, the emotional peak of the movie is when the dog is nailed and he is forced kill it. It's a good scene because they developed some bond between the dog and the audience. I never felt connected to the woman or the little boy...I mean, the boy has no lines in the movie...so you have him there why? Stupid. Then you have the mistake of making the vampires computer generated. They have no soul and just look stupid. Its a bad movie and really, how can you expect me to believe that Will Smith is a scientist? Hes not comfortable with the role, you can tell by how he mutters his lines about the virus, no conviction, you never get the feeling that he knows what he's taking about. If we ever have an out break you can send Will Smith to my house to shoot at the bad guys and make jokes (Men in Black anyone?) but don't send him to find a cure!