6. I Am Legend
I Am Legend is an adaptation of Richard Mathesons novel of the same name (which was also adapted as
The Last Man On Earth and
The Omega Man). If you havent read the book, stop what youre doing and go pick it up right now. While youre at it, also pick up
The Last Man On Earth, which is the best adaptation yet. This 2007 adaptation stars Will Smith as Robert Neville, a virologist who is apparently the last man on Earth after a cure for cancer mutated into a lethal strain, killing off 90% of the population and transforming the survivors into vampiric beings called Darkseekers. Despite portraying the Darkseekers more as stock zombie characters as opposed to the more intelligent, sadistic, and frightening vampires of the novel, the movie is pretty good for most of it. The entire point of the book and the title was that Neville had become a legendary monster, hunting and killing the new normal people.
Test audiences hated this original ending, when Neville discovers the Darkseekers are after him because hes kidnapped one of their own and experiments on her. And proving that the only people who are more stupid than test audiences, the studio executives decided to change the ending to one involving butterfly imagery, mindless zombies, and a big-ass explosion. In other words, the ending completely misses the entire freaking point of the movie and I am legend now becomes his legacy as curing the virus. Fortunately, the DVD release of
I Am Legend includes not only the original ending, but also a version of the movie with the terrible theatrical ending replaced by the far superior original ending. The movie still has some flaws, but at least it has an ending that actually makes sense.