In the long-running case of Chicken vs. Egg, this court finds in the favor of I Am Legend.

Although the plaintiff 28 Days Later makes a compelling case for having "been there first," as they described it, I Am Legend is, in fact, laden with precedent. The science fiction/horror film starring Will Smith is the third remake of a 1954 story by Richard Matheson. Previous versions starred Vincent Price as The Last Man on Earth in 1964 and Charlton Heston as The Omega Man in 1971.

But while 28 Days Later is derivative of this source material, "Legend" is found inferior on several counts.

Both tell similar tales of a plague unleashed by scientists that turned people into flesh-eating zombies and of the survivors who either escaped or were immune.

In "Legend," Smith is the last man alive in a Manhattan gone native, overgrown with grasses and overrun by "Jumanji"-like herds of animals loping through gauntlets of abandoned cars.

He lives in a brownstone fortified with food, weapons and old movies and TV shows, and has no one to talk to except his German shepherd, a la Tom Hanks and Wilson in Cast Away.

But Smith is not just another guy: He is the military scientist charged with finding a cure for a plague that was the unintended consequence of a cure for cancer whose side effects included rabies and a hunger for human flesh. The infected also develop a vampire-like aversion to light, and howling packs of them roam the streets at night. Smith hunts and traps them, then takes them to his laboratory where he continues his search for a cure.