francis lawrence's I AM LEGEND (2007)

i've not read the book, or seen the other screen versions, but i'm even more interested to now, because Lawrence's I Am Legend starts out strong and engaging, and i'm interested to see if the others stumble so clumsily between the story and its telling as they near their ends. (my guess is that Matheson's novel, at the very least, probably does not. so why not put it on the screen?) for what it's worth, Will Smith is characteristically solid, even affecting, and the film's first half makes some handsome design/fx choices that make the postapocalypse (so pointed as our society reaches a probable cusp) as curiously beautiful as it is terrifying. but the film's hard-earned horror supsense is suddenly upended halfway through by some stunningly mediocre CG zompires, and finally loses its grip completely as the third act takes a detour into corny pandering. and it's a shame: I Am Legend is on its surface one of the most impressive big-budget horror flicks in recent memory, but it doesn't survive the night.