I never saw the original, but read about it. Apparently, the Romero film dealt more with the military's PoV while the remake deals more with the survivors. In fact, if not for two scenes inwhich the main character talks to soldiers, the entire military would have been depicted as aliens without conscience or sympathy, which would have made the movie better. That said, I liked the movie. It was okay. While a lot of movies start good and end badly, I felt this one had a better second half, especially the ending. My recommendation: watch it.
 
However, I did not create this thread just to throw my opinion out here. I came to ask something. Like I said, this movie is a remake of a 1973 George Romero movie, of Dead series fame. He's basically the progenitor of the zombie movie. As every self-respected gamer knows, the Resident Evil series is pretty much born from the Dead movies. Capcom isn't shy about it either. Some may remember that she hired the legendary director himself to produce and direct a commercial promoting RE2 back in '98. Anyways, here's my question: is the original Crazies the movie that came up with the whole "military quarentines small rural town and procedes to sterilize it" scenario? The movie was made in '73, that's some time ago. I don't know of any older movie which has this plot. I am really curious to know.