Not Legendary

This blog is old school Stinking Pile retro, yo! Just like the reviews we used to do. As a matter of fact I reviewed the book for the Stinking Pile, if only my old hard drive was working, "sigh" . I Am Legend. Will Smith stars as the last man on earth in this 3rd adaptation of the Richard Matheson novel. Like both other adaptations, this one used certain elements from the book. Will Smith was good as Robert Neville and his struggles against loss, hope and paranoia. Those elements were really the only thing that carried over from the book. The deserted Manhattan also was well done and CGI was put to good use. The vampires, however, being what appeared to be entirely CGI creations continued to remind me why CGI can not entirely stand on it’s own and should only be used to augment the story and not carry it. As far as this being "the most faithful adaptation yet" goes, well, that’s just bullshit. The Vincent Price version, as poor as that one was, is still the closest. It is important to note that the book, I Am Legend first published in 1954 was the genesis for what is now the sub-genre of horror called survival horror. It was considered a modern twist on the vampire mythos and until the advent of Anne Rice it was second only to Dracula by Bram Stoker as the best selling vampire novel of all time. It predated George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead by fourteen years and I Am Legend’s influence can be seen in that movie. Now it is fair to say that the book stands alone as a classic, if under recognized as one. The movie, on the other hand, coming on the heals of many "survival horror" movie classics from Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead (original and remake), Return of the Living Dead, 28 Days Later to name a few, not to mention countless crappy movies like Flight of the Living Dead, Return of the Living Dead 2 and up and on and on and on... I Am Legend had a really difficult challenge to make itself somehow unique and fresh to the movie going public. Instead of going entirely with Robert Neville’s plight and sticking with the theme of the book it took a left turn and the plot holes began to fill up faster than a porn star’s mouth in a bukakke competition. The vampire mutant things were ridiculously bestial and vicious yet smart enough to lay elaborate traps and were superhuman. I mean really, what is this fascination with Hollywood to somehow make things that are threatening to be far beyond the norm for human levels of strength, speed and agility? Anyway, the first two thirds of the movie were, all in all, really good. The last bit was pure Hollywood shlock and (oddly) the ending was not a typical Hollywood ending yet lacked any real resonance from the book. This is a 7 on the stink meter. Just to inform those that never read a "Stinking Pile" review, the scale read thus: 0 meant that the object of said review had NO STINK, was therefor perfect and it was the highest review. I don’t remember anything actually getting this rating, however. 10 meant that the object of said review stunk to high hell and was the worst rating anything could get. I great explanation of the book can be found here yet I would encourage you to go read it.