In the annals of horror, Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend has become precisely what its title proclaims. Authors who are the genre's giants such as Stephen King and Dean Koontz mark it as one of the books that inspired them to pick up a pen. The cinematic world has been an advocate as well. It has been officially adapted three times for the big screen, a few times unofficially, and ripped off numerous other times. It practically gave birth to the idea of a zombie apocalypse without calling it such.
For today's exercise, we're focusing on the three official film adaptations of the iconic book. The first was 1964's The Last Man on Earth, starring horror legend Vincent Price in the lead role. That was followed by 1971's The Omega Man with Charlton Heston taking over last man duties. The last was 2007's I Am Legend with Will Smith as our hero. If nothing else, it's a part played by three highly accomplished actors.
Our purpose is two-fold. First, we want to find out which of the three movies is the most faithful to its source material. Despite the fact they are all adapted from the same novel, they are hardly the same. Neither of the latter two movies could be called a remake of the one(s) before it. Second, which one is the best movie? After all, a film is not necessarily better or worse because it is more or less faithful to its source.
With this in mind, we will use a grading system different from my usual. We're going to break this thing down into seven different categories and give them two grades for each on a scale of four undead. One grade will be called "Faithfulness." I think that one is self-explanatory. The other is for "Effectiveness." Is whatever the movie does in a given category effective for the movie that it's in? Does it work? At the end, I'll bring back my normal scale to give you an idea of my thoughts on how good the movies are.
SPOILER ALERT!
NORMALLY, I try not to spoil the movies I review. Since this is a comparative breakdown, there are spoilers aplenty. So if you haven't seen any of these movies, or read the book and you plan to do just that, continue at your own risk. Most importantly, don't come whining to me that I ruined them for you.
Now, let's get to the bottom of this...
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