By Bob Polunsky
Movie Critic

“I Am Legend,” the third film version of the popular novel, stars Will Smith, and he fits the lead role of Robert Neville like a glove.

In the story, Neville accidentally developed a deadly virus that turns people into flesh-eating creatures, and now feels obligated to develop a cure for it. He also believes that he is the only man on earth immune to it, so he is in no danger himself.

In a suspenseful turn of events, a temporary cure is found, but the citizens of the town don’t trust Neville. They are never sure when or if he will turn on them and create a vampire society.

The stage is set for a race to find a permanent cure, and to make sure Neville doesn’t go the way of all vampires.

It’s a chilling tale based on Richard Matheson’s novel, and it was first filmed in 1964 as “The Last Man on Earth” with Vincent Price. That was a very low budget film obviously made to cash in on Price’s reputation for horror movies. Fans of the science-fiction novel on which it was based stayed away in droves.

Charlton Heston starred in a remake a decade later to cash in on the popularity of his “Planet of the Apes” sci-fi films. Casting Heston seemed logical, and, to separate it from the previous version, it was called “The Omega Man,” a sophisticated title that had the same meaning as “The Last Man on Earth.” It also capitalized on the horror movie craze created by Hitchcock’s “Psycho” at the time.

But “The Omega Man” re-lied more on Heston’s personality than on the public’s fascination with Matheson’s novel. It became a conversation piece among sci-fi film fans but not among Matheson’s most avid supporters because it wasn’t a definitive version “I Am Legend.”

Both previous versions relied on the personality of the actor in the leading role. The current version relies on the concept of the original novel, which is one man’s fervent desire to make amends for experiments that could mark the end of civilization.

The townspeople in “I Am Legend” are just waiting to die from the deadly virus, and they concentrate their resentment on the one man responsible for their condition. He fights back by trying to correct the deadly effects of his experiment, thereby enabling the book’s optimistic title of “I Am Legend” live up to its meaning because moviemakers refused to use the book’s title.

Now the title means more, and this version is a class act.

Studio rating: PG-13

Bob says: “Will Smith comes through.” HHH