Don't listen to the negative reviews

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

This was the second adaption of the novel 'I Am Legend' by Richard Matheson after the Vincent Price movie The Last Man on Earth (1964). It moves the material further away from its horror roots which the Price film also focused on and has a tone which could be described as curious. It's another slice of pessimistic 70's sci-fi, in this case the world during a post-apocalypse. A military scientist is the only recipient of a serum he himself developed which protected him against the results of germ warfare between the Soviet Union and China. The upshot is that he is the last uncontaminated human left on Earth. He now spends his time roaming the streets of Los Angeles by day, while by night has to deal with homicidal nocturnal albino mutants who want to kill him. One day he meets another survivor which leads him to try to develop a vaccine to save the human race.This was one of three key sci-fi movies Charlton Heston starred in at the time, the other two being The Planet of the Apes (1968) and Soylent Green (1973). It's probably fair to say that Omega Man is the least good of the three movies, yet it is still a film not without interest. The basic idea of the film is good, with the deserted streets of Los Angeles used to excellent effect. While the villains certainly make for memorable characters, kitted out in sunglasses and medieval robes. They are effectively religious extremists who look pretty creepy. One of the issues I think though is that, despite this, they never seem to pose enough of a threat and there is a curious lack of suspense in the film as a whole. I think this probably has to be levelled at the direction which doesn't always maximise the sinister elements of the material at his disposal. The weak soundtrack also doesn't help too much here either. Still, despite all this, I still do like this film. Heston is pretty good in the lead, as is Anthony Zerbe as the cult leader. The religion vs science theme was distinctive, while the natural way that the inter-racial relationship was presented was very commendable, especially when you remember this was still a very contentious issue in 1971. I think these survivalist sci-fi films work well in that we always put ourselves in the position of the protagonist and try to wonder how we would cope and if we'd even like it to some degree; this movie works in this way too. As I said earlier, it could have done with generating more threat and it was probably to the film's detriment to suppress the horror side of the story so much. But, despite some flaws, this remains another example of the kinds of interesting sci-fi that was made between the release of the cerebral 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and the action/adventure Star Wars (1977), whose monumental success moved the genre into less left-field areas.

Robert Neville (Charlton Heston) stars in an adaptation of Richard Matheson's science fiction novel, I Am Legend.Set in an apocalyptic world after germ warfare between China and Russia, Neville is the last man on earth after receiving a serum that enabled him to survive.He roams desolate Los Angeles by day, talking to himself. At night bloodthirsty mutants emerge who Neville is intent on killing. The mutants are led by Matthias (Anthony Zerbe), a former television newscaster now in charge of his own cult that has declared war on modern society and what Neville, a doctor and scientist stands for.Neville finds out that he is not the last man on earth as he comes across a group of young people lead by Lisa (Rosalind Cash) who he forms an emotional bond with.Director Boris Sagal managed to do well to show a deserted LA but apart from that his directions lacks flair and instead comes across as cheesy with leader of the mutants dressed as monks in sunglasses, black characters talking in jive. Heston plays his character in stoic manner, it is funny to see him chuckling to himself while watching footage of Woodstock. It is also worth noting that a man who marched alongside with Martin Luther King during the civil rights movement takes part in an interracial romance even though by that time his politics had moved to the right.

As a result of a virus released during a war between China and the Soviet Union, an army scientist named "Robert Neville" (Charlton Heston) drives along the deserted streets of Los Angeles during the day doing pretty much what he wants because there isn't anyone left alive to stop him. The night, however, belongs to a band of mutants who shun the light and despise him for being one of the few people on Earth who hasn't been affected. So they try to kill him during the night and he does his best to return the favor during periods of daylight. Then one day while inside a clothing store he discovers a young woman named "Lisa" (Rosalind Cash) who appears to be similarly unaffected but runs off before he has the chance to get to talk to her. Needless to say, this changes everything—and not just for him but for everyone else as well. Now from what I understand this film is a remake of the 1964 movie "The Last Man on Earth" which starred Vincent Price in the lead role. That said, having seen both of these films, I would have to conclude that this particular picture is slightly better than its predecessor due in large part to the acting of Charlton Heston who seemed better cast for the role than Vincent Price. Likewise, the fact that this movie probably had more resources to draw may have helped in some degree as well. Be that as it may, I happened to like this particular movie and I have rated it accordingly. Above average.

The second adaptation of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend, the first being 1964's Italian-filmed LAST MAN ON EARTH with Vincent Price. Charlton Heston takes the lead in this initially promising film which also ends up taking liberties with Matheson's story. The end result is a slick slice of '70s nihilism with surprisingly explicit scenes of bloody violence - love those squibs - and nudity which holds together well. The post-apocalyptic story could have been told better, but the budget has been put to good use in creating some highly impressive backdrops of a deserted and ruined Los Angeles - best used at the film's opening, as the first quarter of an hour puts across superbly Heston's isolated situation and the state of the post-nuke world.Charlton Heston is always a fun hero to have on board and he gets to engage in some of his shouty overacting which is pleasing to hear - nobody does it better than Chuck. His able nemesis is played by the seedy Anthony Zerbe, playing a mad preacher who leads a tribe of albino mutants, plague victims close to death, whose sole desire is to drive Heston from his safe house and burn him alive. Nice folks, huh? The albino makeup is very impressive and when combined with white contact lenses it leaves an ultra-scary impression; something like Reggie Nalder in SALEM'S LOT but somehow more diseased and twisted, considering that the mutants were once human. The film is technically superior, with good music, editing, and photography.The action sequences are nicely shot and invariably exciting. Most of them involve burning hooded horrors running around screaming whilst Heston empties his machine-gun into them which is fine by me. The main complaint with the script is the introduction of a group of isolated hippies who serve only to further muddy the water and are purely a '70s invention. The more characters, the more cluttered and complex the story, so the fight between Heston and Matheson's "vampires" is diluted and thrown aside in parts. Rosalind Cash is the steamy love interest and her presence adds a then-controversial interracial relationship to the movie which slows it down in places. Things pick up for a surprisingly downbeat conclusion; kudos to the script-writers for not changing that, and not seeking an easy way out by making things happy. In comparison to LAST MAN ON EARTH, I would say both productions are equally good: very different in tone and scope, but both watchable for their own particular reasons. Sci-fi addicts should check this one out.