The Three Faces of Neville

In 1954, Richard Matheson first published his sci-fi/horror novelette, I Am Legend. The book is no stranger to modern motion pictures. It first found its way onto the big screen in 1964 in an Italian-made film called The Last Man On Earth, starring Vincent Price. Just seven years later Warner Brothers updated and retooled Matheson's story in a big-budget release called, The Omega Man featuring 1970s sci-fi hero, Charlton Heston. Matheson's tale of a vampire plague leaving only one uninfected man alive to battle any remaining vampire/zombies, may have also inspired a generation of "Night of the Living Dead" films and it's many clones. In this current world of remakes and CGI visual effects it's no wonder that Warner Brothers has dusted off "Omega Man's" 1971 screenplay along with Matheson's original concept and given modern-day Sci-fi hero, Will Smith a crack at portraying Robert Neville. As Neville, Matheson's protagonist, Smith picks up where Heston left off, as a military doctor trying to find a cure for this man-made virus gone amok. Smith wanders the streets of post-plague New York, a solitary man but for the company of his faithful German Shepherd, Sam. Together they hunt for food and supplies all before nightfall, to avoid the hives of "dark seekers" (Matheson's Vampires) who prey at night. As Neville, Smith finds the time to daydream about his life before the plague wiped out civilization, his lost family and his failed attempt to save mankind from the impending plague. What works best in this latest version are the solitary moments Neville experiences early on in the film, which thanks to Smith's skill full performance are at times both light and touching. Something both Price and Heston failed to do in the previous two film versions. This latest filming of I Am Legend is at its best a much better version of '71's "Omega Man." What the original "Omega Man" lacked in suspense and striking visuals, this Legend has in spades. What this new version could have used is more of what made Matheson's novel so intriguing. Matheson's Neville was no doctor, but rather a lone victim who can't quite understand what has happened to the world around him. So he spends much of his days raiding libraries and performing amateur experiments trying to find some scientific reason as to why humanity has succumbed to this bizarre illness. And as for his nights, they are spent hunting and killing the Vampires who are trying to put an end to his unique survival. Of the three filmed versions of Matheson's story, only Price's "Last Man on Earth" comes closest to telling what its author had originally intended. But even in that cheaply made film, a warfare plague is used in place of Matheson's original idea of an illness brought about by vampires and how it was scientifically possible for them to replace all of mankind. Maybe in another thirty years a new sci-fi cinema star will emerge and finally bring Matheson's original and much darker intentions to the silver screen!