Review of The Omega Man (1971) by Steve C — 18 Sep 2016

The Omega Man is a movie based on the novel I Am Legend, however it seems the script writers took some significant liberties with the source material and made a movie that is awful. I mean we're talking about a film where a disease has been unleashed on the world and it turns mankind into white-faced, light-sensitive, homicidal Luddites.

Charlton Heston is a man immune to the disease because of some serum he came up with just before the outbreak. I'll admit that I was mildly intrigued by the last man on Earth plot, but it wasn't too far into the film when we find out he isn't the last man on Earth, and even the diseased people seem relatively human.

At this point the movie tried to change course and become a film with some semblance of hope, because Heston was going to use his immunity to create a vaccine, but that idea fails because of the pointless and stupid acts of another character.

Honestly, it seemed like everything this movie was trying to do was a failure. The biggest plot hole of the entire movie is that they show light-sensitive beings that choose to destroy things and kill people through burning, as if fire doesn't give off light in this stupid world.

The script is bad, the music is bad, the acting is bad, and the over-the-top symbolism at the end is useless. The only positive I can say about The Omega Man is that it often has the so-bad-it's-good vibe to it, and seems like MST3K could have a field day with it.