LAST MAN ON EARTH was the first film adaptation from the novel, I am Legend, which was made into the popular, but problematic I AM LEGEND with Will Smith. LAST MAN ON EARTH, however, while not even sharing the same title as the book, is a much better adaptation of the general idea the book conveys. Vincent Price is the lead in this film, giving the film its first main flaw: an overbearing self-narrative, despite the power Price conveys, which is more powerful than anything Smith ever really gave in I AM LEGEND. The film follows Price around a post-apocolyptic world after being struck by a plague that turned everyone into vampires. Price keeps up his life in his house, boarded up, and venture out into the city by day to execute sleeping vampires and search for food and supplies. We also get a long flashback about how the disease came about, and its effect upon society. As Price searches for remnants of the human race, the defining qualities of that race is challenged. He, Price, executes these creatures, but only on the pretense that they're evil, and without the knowledge of their own constructed night-society. There are some striking images in LAST MAN ON EARTH, and Price is a likable lead, but the story is a little thin, and in terms of real content, the film lags. Not great.
Last Man on Earth: ★★1/2
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