I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (The original book) - Is well worth taking the time to track down and read. Well written, clever, and Robert Neville is a good character. He's not a scientist (as he has been portrayed in each of the cinema versions) and decides to try and learn about the illness that is turning people into vampires. He's fallable, makes mistakes due to impatience, and is generally fairly believable.

The Last Man on Earth is by far the most faithful adaptation of the source material, apart from changing the main character's name to Morgan. It hits most of the key points and only really changes towards the end, but not too radically. It has only one actor, which is unfortunate as there are a number of people on screen. Also unfortunate is that it is very slow, which mixed with the bad acting, makes it a fairly ordinary effort.

The Omega Man very much has its own identity and take on things, and is only loosely based on the core idea of the book. However, it's dynamic, clever, and the 'creatures' are intelligent - they can talk and have a fanatical point of view - which only makes them far more interesting to watch.

I Am Legend - The new film is actually based on The Omega Man more than anything else. Unfortunately it misses one of the key points of the source material and the previous two films - a man alone in a world of monsters. The 'monsters' themselves are done using fairly ordinary CGI rather than actors, to the film's detriment. The film would loose nothing on DVD and is not really worth a cinema admission.

Of the three films, Omega Man is by far the best. It's the most interesting, engaging take, even if it only bears a light resemblance to the source material. Last Man suffers for it's pace and acting, Legend for its unrealistic looking creatures and scaring by surprise rather than mood.

I should be seeing I Am Omega tomorrow, all going well.
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From: [identity profile] stephbg.livejournal.com


It's been a long time but I remember finding The Omega Man very scary.

From: [identity profile] bunnikins.livejournal.com


I want to see I Am Legend, if only because I've seen the other two films and love the book. I'll wait for DVD though, I missed the 3-whole-day run at the only cinema here that shows films in English.

And I'd never heard of I Am Omega til just now - I just googled & found a trailer, and omg, Marc Dacascos! Want to see this, I do.
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