Review of The Omega Man (1971) by Michael J — 16 Nov 2012

[WARNING: there are some mild spoilers of the original Matheson book in this review, so don't read if you want to be shocked by the book's surprise ending.].

Now that I've watched all three of the adaptations of "I Am Legend", I have to say that this one is by far my least favorite. The infected humans have not really been changed very much by the disease; they look weird, and they can't come out in the light, but they can still think just like normal humans. They aren't creepy, like the not-quite-human zombie/vampires of the Vincent Price version, and they aren't really scary like the ones in the Will Smith version. Essentially, they turned powder-white and joined a cult. There are some echoes of strained post-1960s race relations, and anti-racism seems to be an unspoken underlying theme (the infected who are being discriminated against are TOO white, in this case). In the novel, the twist is finding out that the infected actually are still aware and are building their own new society; in this version that revelation happens at the very beginning, spoiling the surprise completely.

Heston's Neville doesn't come off as having gone a little bit crazy the way he does in the other adaptations. Sure, he plays chess with a statue bust, but that winds up making him look ironic and sarcastic rather than loopy. This Neville is very militaristic, especially for a scientist; his only desire is to kill the infected, even though they are quite obviously still sentient. He has no compassion... only bullets. It makes for a more two-dimensional Neville. Maybe the craziest thing of all about him is that he is so focused on murder that it has kept him sane; if that was the angle they were looking for, it might have been a good one if it had come across.

The romantic element in this film feels completely forced. The Neville and Lisa have no reason to be attracted to each other, especially since Lisa and Dutch have been living in the same batch of survivors for some time (and you can't tell me they wouldn't have eventually gotten interested in each other in those circumstances). I found the romantic scenes, honestly, a bit embarrassing. And that's not because it is an interracial romance; I would have felt the same way if it were two people of the same race. Lisa throws herself at Neville for no other apparent reason than that her brother is getting better, even though she had shown an ample helping of disdain for Neville a few scenes earlier. It almost seemed like she was pulling something on him... but she wasn't. Another incredible plot twist from the book, completely eliminated.

The one compelling thing about this movie is the scenes of the very real Los Angeles looking completely deserted. These days you can make something like that happen using careful planning and CG special effects; then you had to actually make sure nobody was wandering around downtown LA on the day you're shooting. The opening scenes of the movie, where Neville is speeding through the streets for no better reason than to go watch a movie which he's watched many times before, are classic. After he meets Lisa, by no fault of actress Rosalind Cash, the whole thing starts to go seriously downhill. Maybe even before that, actually. My recommendation: watch the movie until you see a character other than Neville (it won't be Cash). At that point, you might as well shut it off. Maybe this Neville would be better off if he WAS the last living human being, because once he starts interacting with other humans, the story goes from bad to worse.