The Omega Man suffers from the same contradictions. Perhaps it's a weakness in the novel. Or maybe it's impossible to write a post-apocalyptic screenplay that holds together. 28 Days Later had some big holes too, I recall.

Tom Hanks was the only character in Castaway and yet we saw him develop just fine. Admittedly it's a longer movie, but not an order of magnitude longer.

And the plot internally consistent? From an email I sent to Patrick earlier today:

[begin]For example, in the movie, when the one "thing" voluntarily exposes himself to sunlight. Neville even makes a note of it in his video journal. So okay, I think perhaps they're becoming immune to sunlight, and they're going to start attacking Neville in the daytime or something. Nope. Nothing ever happens.

And if they don't like UV light, why wouldn't you just grab a shitload of UV lights and put those all around and inside your safe room?

And why didn't they attack his house the first night he was rescued? Certainly the woman wouldn't know how to shut all those metal shutters and she didn't know how to blow things up or turn on the outside lights.

And the dogs - why couldn't they cross over a tiny sliver of sunlight? They'd just burnt themselves slightly doing so and still lived, so why not jump through the sunbeam and attack?[/end]

There are a LOT more holes than that, and frankly, they got in the way of understanding the movie. For example, why the heck was he so intent on hunting deer? I thought perhaps they had a gland that could help cure the virus. But no, Neville just wasted time hunting deer…

I think I Am Legend is actually more believable: the falling apart of the cities, his inability to cope when he comes across other people. The plot's a bit of a mess, but internally consistent. I thought he did well, and I'm not usually a fan of big CGI remakes.

I like "the characters were poorly developed", though - a man, a dog? And a few people in snatched flashbacks? Umm. Not much room for development there.

(Sorry, should mention - I originally saw Omega Man first, a long time ago, and had expected that I Am Legend would be rubbish. Was surprised to find that not the case.)

I had read the book before seeing it. The book is a much better experience and a much better story. Although the basic premise is the same, there are better elements to it as you get "inside" the character's head.