Instruct: Classify a given Amazon review as either positive or negative.
Query: This was average at best

It's sad that they had to put Will Smith on the cover in order to generate interest. I'm pretty sure that the movie remake will be much different than this book. There will probably be more action and plot holes will be filled and expanded. And Smith doesn't seem like he could portray the same tortured soul from the book.Anyway, on with the book review - after all the hype I expected something better. This story has influenced a lot of authors and filmmakers so I wanted to like it. And Matheson is the guy who wrote Stir of Echoes which is one of my favorite movies. But I didn't enjoy reading this.The plot seemed to be lacking something and there were not really any characters I could relate to except maybe the dog. In fact, I might have enjoyed this better if it were from the dog's point of view rather than a misogynist drunk who somehow miraculously teaches himself bacteriology and solves the riddle of the plague all by himself.