The whole point
Has there ever been an adaptation that missed the whole point of the story more than this rubbish?
Well, yeah. There was even a previous adaptation of the same novel that missed the point by more.
IAL (2007) - even the version that ended with blowing up the lab - had echos of the original. First, the creepy wall of photos in the lab of the vast number of previous experimental "victims". Second, the revelation of human intelligence and hints of motivation from the darkseekers. And the other ending makes it crystal clear that the darkseekers have a human-like devotion to one another and are fighting back against Neville, who has been killing them for years.
Whereas...
The Omega Man (1971) simply has the vaccine developed from the blood of Neville (who gave his life to atone for the sins of humanity or some such Christ analogy) being the way to save the survivors. Those saved will not be any new version of humanity; they will just be cured. The "tertiary cases" are dealt with in the exchange between Neville and the leader, Mathias: Mathias- "We have cleansed and purged his world, now we must build". Neville replies- "Build coffins, that's all you'll need".
Neither movie is a halfway decent adaptation, but both have some value.
The original film "The Last Man on Earth" with Vincent Price is closer to the original novel written by Richard Matheson. However in all three movie versions, they make Neville a scientist who is capable of creating the cure. In the original story he is a blue collar worker who survived by dumb luck. He had been bitten by an infected animal.
shareYes, as adaptation all three films fail and as you point out it's kinda strange that each time they start off changing the Neville character's background. You'd almost think each later film was cribbing from the previous ones...
I read that the writers of The Omega Man held the book in some contempt and thought that the whole vampire angle was the first thing that had to go. I would actually be surprised if they ever watched The Last Man on Earth.
Good point, well made!
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