An interesting film, even if it is a remake the film starts off well with a news report about a new wonder drug which has been created by altering the measles virus at a genetic level. We are then transported to New York City three years later where we see that the streets are deserted and overgrown. It is really quite wonderful to see the city in this state and it can take your breath away, well maybe not quite but the tranquillity is interrupted by a car speeding though the streets, the car we learn is driven by Robert Neville (Will Smith) who is out hunting for food with his dog Sam. At this stage when watching the film I was rather disappointed that we were not going to see how the virus actually took hold but then again in reflection do we really need to see how the wonder virus turned into a killer virus.

However we do get to see a little into the past in the form of flashbacks that Neville has throughout the film, each giving us a little taster into the past and learn that he was involved with the military working on a cure for the virus. Back in the present we get an insight into how Robert Neville and Sam live and that he is still working on finding a cure for the virus and how his life follows a routine to get home by sunset.

At times I felt sorry for Neville and felt that at times Will Smith was great at portraying someone who had been alone for such a long time. And this film even with its flashback scenes is really dominated by two characters, Neville and Sam the dog. When Neville reaches his lowest point along come two more survivors who were brought to the city after hearing a radio broadcast made by Neville. We don’t get to learn a great deal about these two new characters, a young woman and child except that they like Neville have a natural immunity to the virus and are travelling to a survivor’s colony, we do get to see how isolation can effect a people and again Smith was fantastic. I am not going to give away the ending of the film but there were a few little things that niggled at me, One of the infected seems to be in charge and at one point a trap is set for Neville and I did not feel this was explored, were the infected brainless monsters or did they retain some sort of social order and intelligence?

A great film that everyone should go out to see it is really quite frightening to think that something created to help us could eventually lead to our destruction and with all the tampering that scientists are doing with genetics should we be worried. A must have film for my DVD collection..

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 30th, 2007 at 6:33 pm and is filed under Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.