Critic's Corner...
Everyone is a critic, whether it's the armchair quarterback on Sunday afternoons, the bar room patron viewing a boxing match on the TV, a parent watching their child's scholastic progress, or even a person living in a blighted area of a city (gee, that last one sure sounds familiar somehow).

Will Smith is simply an incredible actor...AND he's from my hometown of Philly, which makes him top of the list in MY book any day.
His latest movie, I AM LEGEND opens today, and I believe it will do pretty well, even for a "holiday movie".
Then again, most EVERY movie usually does well on opening week.

But if you think this is a "brand new" movie...think again.
This flick is a remake...OF a remake.

The book I Am Legend was written by noted science fiction author Richard Matheson (who also penned The Incredible Shrinking Man) way back in 1954 (I have a paperback copy), and was first made into a movie called The Last Man On Earth, filmed in 1964 (an Italian production) starring none other than Vincent Price as Dr. Robert Morgan (a change from the book).
This was a darn good B&W movie, showing a troubled man living in a small boarded up house out of town (southern California) all alone while dealing with the problems of BEING alone. The villains were ( as is in the book) vampiric in nature and it was his job to eradicate them (which he did quite well with a stake through the heart).
Sadly, he is killed by other surviving humans and tossed into the huge quarry where all the "dead" bodies were being burned. This deviates drastically from the book's ending ( possible spoiler alert). But humanity emerges victorious at some level.
If all this sounds akin to a George Romero film...you're not that far off. The Living Dead series is a direct rip-off from Matheson with just enough changes to not warrant any lawsuits. And you can lump the Resident Evil series right in there with the rest of these clones.
((As a sidebar, if anyone ever wants to see the "dead" come back to life, they either should be a teacher when the dismissal bell rings, or a cat owner when it's dinnertime...LOL!))

Fast forward to 1971 - the FIRST remake entitled The Omega Man, starring Charlton Heston as Robert Neville. And with this updated version (set in Los Angeles), we see Neville living in as much luxury as his situation affords him. He has several vehicles in his heavily-locked garage, a generator for power, sips wine as he plays chess with a bust of Julius Caesar, and an arsenal of weaponry at his disposal (with which he gladly wastes as many mutants as he can find) as well as a closed circuit TV system monitoring his fortified residence (high tech with a real purpose...finally).
He too also dies at the end of the movie (killed at the hands of the mutant "Brotherhood"), but manages to pass on a serum to other survivors living in the mountains who haven't "gone over" (mutated) yet, so we can assume that humanity again marches onward. This again deviates from the novel greatly.

There is also a 2007 direct to DVD release called I Am Omega, starring Marc Decascos.

Now we have Will Smith's movie (located in NYC - a damn good alternative locale, btw), and if HE dies at the end (spoiler - don't count on it), that would at least follow the book (to a degree), but it becomes the MANNER in which Robert Neville dies that is the real determining factor.

In the book, Neville is eventually captured by the mutant humans, and locked in a cell with but one alternative to his plight...death by suicide (pill). He takes the pills and says with finality: "I am legend", for in fact he is the ONLY "normal" person left alive after the biological catastrophe that changes humanity forever, and thereby becomes the REAL "mutant" on the planet.

And therein lies the REAL gist of the story...can one solitary normal person exist in a world of people that see HIM as a danger because of his normalcy? The answer, according to Matheson's novel is...NO.
Hollywood has other ideas.

Humankind (in the book) has "evolved" beyond what we consider "normal", supplanting it's OWN new version of normal in lieu of what was once considered normal. And in some ways, we are seeing a anti-moralistic, politically-correct version of this evolution being played out with everything from music to the celebration of Christmas.
Now I could get into the whole secular humanist side of this, and smack down the ACLU (who deserve it daily)...but I won't. What I WILL say is that if you're not acquainted with this novel by Matheson, or any former version of the movie, to get out and see Will Smith's version, but challenge yourself to look BEYOND the special effects and the action, and delve into the MAN he portrays.The REAL story is told there...with one man who seems to be the last of his kind.
That alone should get one thinking.

Personally, I have an even greater affinity for this book NOW, living where I do, than when I first read it (or saw the other movies), as I see people around us who have "mutated" away from what I (or any other normal person) used to consider NORMAL. And the thought of being the last person in my neighborhood (or at least one of a few remaining people) who still believes in ethics, respect, morals, and responsibility...the basis for our humanity...is sobering, and a bit overwhelming some days.

Then I do what Neville would have done...try and shrug it off as best I can, and get on with the task at hand...namely survival.

Do have a safe weekend!
(10 shopping days until Christmas)