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Capone Faces I AM LEGEND!!
Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here.
It's rare that Will Smith isn't carrying whatever film he's starring in. But with I AM LEGEND, he's really a one-man show, performing almost entirely without other actors to play off of or tell jokes to.
So it's to his credit that this film works for the most part as both an action film and a contemplative look at what happens to a person not only cut off from the world, but also smart enough to know that he may never see another human being again. Based on the acclaimed Richard Matheson novel of the same name, I AM LEGEND is a smaller film than you might imagine.
Despite the setting of an abandoned Manhattan island and the occasional attack by dogs or humans infected with a rabies-like virus that has essentially killed off the world's population, the bulk of the film's running time centers on Smith's Robert Neville, a military scientist who knows how this situation came to be and is determined to dedicate the rest of his life to researching how to reverse the effects of what was apparently a drug meant to cure cancer. He and his uninfected dog drive through empty streets looking for wildlife (mostly deer) to kill for food, and he's got what appears to be a fairly solid system for going through his day.
For example, he is literally working his way through the nearby video store one movie at a time. He has set up mannequins along his route that he pretends are people he can talk to. And, sometimes he searches for hives of infected humans (that act a lot like vampires) so he can snatch some up for his experiments. Any infected creature can't survive in the sunlight, which means he has multiple alarms set on his watch to warn him when it's time to head back home and lock himself in.
Rather than turn this story into a full-blown action offering, director Francis Lawrence (CONSTANTINE) holds back for much of the film. He's more interested in having us watch Neville slowly lose his mind as he has recurring nightmares (in the form of flashbacks) about how this all started and the last time he saw his family (his wife, played by Salli Richardson, and daughter, played by Willow Smith) alive during a dramatic evacuation of New York City. He spends several hours a day in an underground lab, working with rats and once-human subjects trying to cure this disease, but there comes a point where you wonder why he's bothering since most of the world's population is dead. He's doing it, of course, because if he doesn't try, he'll probably kill himself.
It isn't until the final third of the film that Smith and Lawrence hit the action button, and all hell breaks loose. There's more than a hint that at least one of these creatures has enough intelligence to rally and organize the masses against Neville, and that feels a bit like cheating, but at that point, it doesn't matter. The creatures are scary as shit. Their look and the sound of their howling still haunts me. The way their mouths open in ways that aren't anatomically possible really creeped me out. By the time Neville finds two more humans to interact with, it almost seems like an unnecessary injection into his life. But when you see the end, you'll understand why their inclusion was important.
I AM LEGEND is going to surprise a lot of people expecting non-stop action or perhaps more humor from Smith, but I'm guessing Smith paid attention to the folks who criticized what he did to I, ROBOT. Here, he's playing it straight for the most part. He finds moments of humor, but much of the time the laughs are the nervous kind or the type found around gallows. There are moments of true terror here, like a sequence involving Neville's dog running into a dark building chasing a deer and he reluctantly goes in after it. There also is genuine sadness at work here, but I found observing his day-to-day living as fascinating as anything else in the film.
This is one of the few films I've seen recently that successfully blends a small, art-house feel with a bigger budget and a sprinkling of special effects. The ending may leave people a bit miffed, but it was appropriate considering what comes before it. I AM LEGEND is a surprisingly satisfying science-fiction work that stays true to the tone of the book, while not being afraid to add a little zing in an effort to get the heart rate racing.
Capone
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Sheesh.
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imax tomorrow.
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The movie was fine until the creatures started screaming..over and over. It looked like the same animation every time. I don't get how they were smart but not. It just got retarded after about 45mins. Disappointing. Pretty much what I expected though.
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Rather watch The Simpsons spoof on this tale. Yawn.
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Will Smith is a giant douchebag. It's obvious he re-writes his dialogue!! He thinks he's the greatest ACTOR EVER !! He sucks.
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The world has lost a huge part of it's population, but gasoline and electricity are still available? Yeah, uh-huh, right. Like someone else posted, just run over the goddamn deer you jackass !!
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Despite the hate everyone seems to have for it.
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for the first 6 minutes of the dark knight. hopefully the movie is good too. it's like the time i saw dreamcatcher solely for the final flight of the osiris
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Because that is the standard we're using for quality nowadays.
Am I right? -
All you can eat and drink.
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of Will Smith as an action star. I want to see him do something different. He plays the same character in every movie. He's like black man Drew Barrymore.
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and I've already written a fifty-page essay on all the inconsistencies and how this film will suck. Tonight I'll go to the film and distribute copies of my groundbreaking essay so people won't be fooled.
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Thanks for the review. I've already got my tix for a screening tomorrow night. Looking forward to it.
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Thanks for the review. I've already got my tix for a screening tomorrow night. Looking forward to it.
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anger and negativity about this film? Honestly the other talk back if full of people ripping Smith and the Movie. Is that just how is usually is around here?
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Is the film actually, mercifully, devoid of any "Aw HELL naw!" outbursts?
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I enjoy your review. I liked how you didn't spend the whole time talking about Will Smith like every other reviewer has. We all know Will Smith is going to Freashen things up, but it sounds like he didn't totally lose the idea of the movie. You've made me want to see this movie now. I think we can all stop bitching about Will Smith, he's entertainment personified. Maybe not your type of entertainment, but Will Smith makes movies everyone can like.
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because if he doesnt!
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Nevile has the right idea shooting rather than running into the deer.
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was fine in the movie. It's the infected that are my problem. They seem borderline able to do things, but then act like retards. Also, the alpha one screams like seriously 5 times and it looks identical and gets boring. The start was like an eerie Castaway, it worked great. Then midway it turns into The Mummy or something and just lost me. I remember when this was supposed to be an arnold vehicle, and I'm actually glad they didn't use him, because I don't think it would have worked at all for the first half.
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GM commercial. Dont tell me these will be two of the top movies of the yr.
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We'll see if this is just The Bro-mega Man or better than Price's "Last Man on Earth".
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And not just Ford ones either. In fact I wouldnt even touch Ford. I'd bust into the BMW dealership and be drag racing solo all day.
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because that's how it is in the book. It sounds at least like it might be a tad more like the book than the preview, but I still think they should have called it Omega Man, since it's clearly based more on that interpretation than on the book. Fuck it, I'm gonna go rent "I Am Omega". It's probably just as good, right? Maybe a double feature with "Transmorfers"
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back in the day
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hahahahaha, dam that was funny.....
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I agree with it for the most part, but I would have liked to have seen:
A. A little more action
B. Even more on the vampires/infected, as it was obvious that they WERE intelligent.
Also, this movie reminded me a little too much of 28 Days Later (which I loved) in a few places. -
Plus, there's no Ben Cortman in the story. I'd even settle for a Matthius character. Last Man On Earth and Omega Man were better scripts.
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Dec 14, 2007 12:22:48 PM CST
Eh, Some great sequences, but the ending was pretty poor.
by novaman5000
It didn't fit with the tone of the film at all, and just felt like a copout to me.
Still, the dark warehouse sequence, as well as the dog attack were both great, tense moments. The dock sequence with the car didn't make much sense to me. I get what he was doing but it felt off. Oh, and the inclusion of the characters at the end kind of pissed me off, mostly because of the ending and how they fit into all of it, but also because their presence is sort of unexplained... Isn't he on Manhattan? Isn't manhattan an Island? I'm assuming they took a boat but, a little explanation would have been nice.
The CG was decent for the most part, though the vampires occasionally looked cartoony. They sounded great, though, pretty scary fuckers overall. -
Dec 14, 2007 12:26:49 PM CST
It makes sense that Gas would be available, but electricity?
by novaman5000
One person using an entire city's worth of gas... It'd take a long ass time to use it all... As for electricity though... Does he have a generator? You'd assume so, but they never say. Also, how'd he set up his apartment with all those heavy metal doors and shit all by himself?
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Dec 14, 2007 12:30:02 PM CST
Why are their mouths opening in ways that aren't anatomically po
by catlettuce4
Aren't they just infected humans?
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The movie actually addresses that with shelves of Prego and canned vegatables for their diet. A lack of protein though, which would be provided via deer meat. Don't know the shelf life of canned meat..would it be more than three years?
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in the beginning of the film. He just hunts because he can...Why let good fresh meat go to waste? If I was him, I'd hunt until the deer was scarce, THEN i'd move on to the preserved food. That makes sense to me. Deer might not always be around... Canned food doesn't spoil easily, so it will be.
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I usually enjoy reading the reviews here, but I never trust them. Although I'd love to see the general consensus that this movie sucks, as someone who loved the book whole-heartedly I know this isn't going to happen. As a film it probably works, even if it squandered real potential and took a great piece of American Gothic and turned into just another big action tent-post film. But still, Come'on, most of this crew here loved Transformers and what a piece of shit that was. Seriously, it wasn't even fun after 20 minutes, just mind-numbingly stupid. I still hold out hope that this will eventually get made into something that will do the book justice - or maybe there should never be that kind of vehicle. Maybe I Am Legend should just remain a good solid book with a million crappy film adaptations.
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You see his generator a couple times.
Me, I really liked the first two acts, but wasn't that into the big action scenes at the end. And hearing that in the book all the creatures were intelligent and talked, and one had been the main character's friend, THAT sounds like a damn cool movie. -
I have HAD it with these MOTHERFLIPPIN vampires on this MOTHERFLIPPIN planet!
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Granted, everyone is entitled to their opinions, but I suspect many of you here are assholes just for the sake of being assholes. I've read the book and yeah, I thought it was cool--but it was a book. This a movie. I expected there to be differences given that, and the modernization of the material. This is better than the Price and Heston versions--both which I bought and watched prior to seeing this. Aside from the poor choice to CG all of the infected, this movie really works.
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On the whole, gasoline can sit around for maybe 1 year before it starts turning into varnish. 3 years? NO WAY !! They lost me with this stupidity. Just like the Chuck Heston version where the newspapers blowing down the street weren't yellowed.
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Freakin' DUH ALREADY !!!
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i know a lot of things in the film are completely different than the book, but if anyones actually read the book, it IS mostly about Neville losing his mind, there isnt a whole lot of action until the end in the book as well. im excited to see it.
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did they just evaporate?
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It just felt half-assed half-way through. It felt so much more coherent and seamless until the alpha shows up. It was creepy and slick until that. Then it gets all actiony and stutters. Having more of something like the reapers in Blade 2 would have been better. They at least had SOME personality, especially the alpha. The only effective scene with the infected is when he fist sees them.
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I meant first....
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As a CGI negro, I take offence to that comment. Just kidding, I'm CGI Polish.
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Dec 14, 2007 1:12:11 PM CST
I'm going to see this tonight. Like he said in
by grammaton cleric binks
I, Robot "Do I look like I give a damn what you think."
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the zombies got Jazzy Jeff AW HEYLL NAW!!!
I BE LEGEND -
Not AVP - Alien 5.
http://tinyurl.com/28e25e -
Your attacks on the writers/reviewers on this site and how they compare to your own personal tastes...well, it's one of the stupidest things I've ever read on this site. Why do you continue to to insult people's intelligence with this nonsense?I'll await your "Bayformers" laced reply that will no doubt include the unnecessary usage of the phrase "As it were".
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I just can't take your stance seriously...they're lousy reviewers because they don't agree with YOUR personal tastes and opinions??? Aren't we the narcissistic one? Reviews are OPINION pieces, nothing more, nothing less. Find a reviewer who gels with your personal tastes and trust only them, stop constantly whining about guys giving positive reviews to movies you have already pre-determined you will not like. What kind of life is that?? Pretty pathetic if you ask me.
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Easily riled, I see. You know, when you get hot under the collar, your diction gets even worse.But you're missing the point, MOM. (*SHOCKER*) You keep failing to grasp the simple concept that people (and reviewers alike) have different tastes and different reactions to films. You can't expect Moriarty's or Capone's reviews to match up with your sentiments 1-for-1 or 100% of the time. It's just not gonna happen. In the meantime, you seem to view this as an excuse to attack (not "challenge") them. It's childish.And I find it endlessly entertaining to know that you've seen every single one of Michael Bay's films despite your rantings of hatred. I bet you even own a film or two of his. Am I right?
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I think this movie will be a great movie to watch with a tub of popcorn and enjoying the Sci-Fi, zombie elements.
There's also a religious theme when Will Smith sees the phrase "god stil loves us" on a building after the apacolypse. This site is where I heard about the contest and it looks like you can win a macbook pro.
Goto godstilllovesus.org
http://www.filmplug.com/blog/2007/12/god_still_loves_i_am_legend.html -
Ahhh, product placement for Prego. Too bad it wasn't Dinty More. Still, in the last two movies, Morgan and Neville had their stash in freezers. Does this Neville do the same? Sure, hunting deer is not a problem when you have to survive, but Manhattan is a big place for an island so, one stands to erason there should be lots of leftovers for years to come or he can grow his own.
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Did you have to tell us he found other humans?
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Stop spoiling the movie....
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I think we all realize that there are going to be people who like this film, for whatever reason(s). I don't think that those of us who have no interest, indeed a hatred of this film, because it differs so much from the novel would have as much of a problem as we do with it, if they had just not called it I Am Legend. Call it The Omega Man and even I might have seen it at some point, probably waited for it to show up at the library for free. But even for free I will never watch this film.
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scene from Road Warrior where Mel digs in to a delicious dinner of the Aussie version of Alpo. Then he shares with his mutt, and the chopper pilot gets sloppy thirds. Soylent Green doesn't count. Sure,the ending is great, but throughout the whole movie they're just eating green crackers as far as we're concerned.
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Dude, you're head is facing the wrong direction.
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He dies. Just in the nick of time! It's really pretty good, and felt short. Will Smith is great. There is no "aw, helll naww!" It moves a little quickly at the end, but it's still rockin. This movie? I am Box Office! And, it's even more straight up than Golden Compass, as Will Smith yells "There is no God!!!" Sure, he lapses a little just before he dies, but still . . . This movie is the last nail in the coffin of Golden Compass.
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Just different from the book. But it's also a great title. Omega Man? What kind of cheesy title is that?
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I haven't read the original book and from what I understand it's nothing at all like the original so I'm not going to look at that. It's been made before anyway, as "The Omega Man" and "The Last Man on Earth", so if you really want to see an adaption of the story as writte, I suppose those will work. Will Smith is, of course, the last man on Earth, conveniently enough one of the people that was working on a cure for the virus that eventually killed all but 1% of the earth. Supposedly I say because in a character point that really is just glossed over he never looks outside the city for anything. Anywhere where life could be he insists that nothing exists. It could be because at the point that the movie picks up, 2 years on from 'Ground Zero', he's quite mad. For most of the movie, he avoids/fights evil vampire/zombie/mummy looking things, hunts through the city with his dog, tries to pick up mannequins in the video store (With Green Lantern movie posters!) and so on. And this works. The sense of desperation, his sanity slipping, very well acted and well done.
The problem is it spends an hour setting up this world where nobody else exists anymore, and then it completely destroys the buildup when another survivor shows up. With the requisite useless kid. Any sort of tension or anything is completely lost as we get 15 minutes of awkward interaction before the movie attempts to bring back some sort of energy, but by that point it's shoehorned a half-ass religious aspect to it and it seems like M.Night Shaymalan takes over the direction.
Now that I type that, I was thinking throughout even the best parts that it was very M. Night ish. Long camera shots, a willingness to just slow down and ratchet up the tension. And then in the end we get what I can only describe as a half-ass M. Night ending with a combination of 'Signs' and 'The Villiage'.
Good Effects, though every time the 'lead' dark-walker-thing yells, you expect bugs to come flying out of his mouth. City looks good, though there's the question: Where is his power coming from? Running Water? Two years without anyone!
In the end, it's worth seeing as a matinee or something, but I don't think it's anything special. The worst type of movie I think is one that has all the potential in the world and then just squanders it on bad decisions, probably studio-enforced since we can't have Will by himself for the entire movie, can we?
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Prepare to be entertained, then disappointed. A solid B-.
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Out on the street, maybe in Times Square. Had a release date on it. At least, they imagined there would be some awesome movies before the world ended.
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In case that hasn't already been covered here, a neat little bit of trivia. I've always liked that guy, though I've not followed all his crazy musical twists & turns over the years.
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It shows the row of hona generators running. He's been there for a while; presumable he has a tank for water on the roof. If he was the last man in New York, he could probably have running water and electricity, although we he didn't have a bevy of two-way radios and CBs going and shortwaves going at all hours, I don't know.His gas comes from pumping it out tanks at gas stations. One would have to assume that it all ended pretty quick, for no one else to have draughted the gas, but still. I Am Legend does a better job of explaining how he manages than most of those kinds of movies. Even though the cars look a little too new, and washed (who would have time to keep washing there cars when they're getting chased by vampires, plus standing out with the clean cars) . . . but usually they were driving with tanks of gas and generators strapped to the top of the cars. On the whole, pretty well thought out, although why Neville didn't have a super-intense ultraviolet set up in his house and/or lab, or as a projector light on his car, I dunno.
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I meant to say. First thing. For those who have never had to run off a portable generator, that's what they look like, and they make electricity. You do have to put gas at them. Which he was getting by hand-pumping the gas out of still-somewhat-full tanks at various New York gas stations.
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Best thing about this apocalyptic future: A Superman vs. Batman movie was about to come out.
Worst thing: 'Legally Blonde: The Musical' was apparently still running. -
Vampires should eat his butt just for stupidity.
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Everyone completely accepts that:
1) A Cure for Cancer is found 2) Everyone on Earth dies except for the new zombie vampires. However, NO ONE is willing to accept that gasoline would stay fresh? Why pick so many nits? -
and finished somewhat weak. Not in terms on storytelling, perhaps. It's seemed the pacing was lopsided. It went from slow (but engaging and good) to a 100mph in the blink of an eye.
I think some re-editing may be in order. -
Zombie Vampires are within the context of the storyline, like a man dressing up as a bat for The Dark Knight. However, these films are supposed to otherwise take place in the real world....real city, real Ford Mustangs. Grass is green, the sky is blue, and gasoline goes bad when left out too long.
If liberties with reality can be taken at any level, why doesnt Will Smith just Form Blazing Sword Voltron style and chop his way to victory? -
Good point, but why let a meaningless detail bother you so much? Maybe they've created a better type of fuel by 2012 that doesn't decompose as fast. Maybe he dumped a sheeet load of fuel stabilizer into one of the Gas station tanks. Who cares it just seems a little minutia to me. I'm guilty of it aswell it just seemed like people were going overboard.
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Denise Richards. You believe that James Bond can battle out of wherever he is with no scratch, throw an airplane off the cliff, hop into it, jump start it, take off, while having sex with the girl simultaneously, etc., but you can't picture Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist?
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Too bad Chuck Norris has never cried, EVER.
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It's a remake of the Omega Man, but then that wasn't Richard Mattheson's story either. The original was about vampires. Robert Neville spent his days putting up garlic around the windows, cutting stakes to kill off vampires during the day, and discovering that sunlight kills them too.
I hate it when Hollywood steals a title from a book and sticks it on a movie the doesn't resemble the original in the slightest, ie 'I Robot.' -
So he went around and added stabilizer to the tanks, and keeps it consistently up, so the gas doesn't go bad. It's a movie about being the last guy on earth, except for rabid vampires. Come on, people.
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Matheson's novel is acclaimed literature as Scooby Doo is acclaimed animation... ie it's not. The original novella is proud stupid American PULP fiction, with a gun wielding tough guy manhandling scantily clad chicks and kicking vampire ass. I dont object to the mischaracterization of the book as much as the fact that the reviewer obviously has NOT read the book yet sees fit to compare it to the movie in complete blissfull ignorance. Dick Wolfowitz is that U? Saw this movie and it sucked. It was also not at all like the book but that's another matter entirely
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Reads like something one of the characters on "Mad Men" would write. BTW, Matheson never explained the gasoline going bad, and never had Neville hunting for water sources either. Probably because the only thing his Neville ever drank was alcohol.
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Screenplays include Twilight Zone: Nick of Time and Nightmare at 20,000 feet, and Duel, the TV movie filmed by Spielberg from Matheson's short story.
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It was really a study in what society considers normal. Neville essentially becomes the 'monster' in the end. It was very influential to people like George Romero and Stephen King.
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Now in the toilet with this movie.
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I enjoyed it. I put it above Omega Man and below The Last Man on Earth.
Would have preferred if they kept more of the book's tone. I guess it stems from the "vampires" being stupid in this movie and not having the truly undead and just the infected--but then how did they set a trap for Neville? I just didn't get the feel that they saw him as the legendary killer that he was.
The ending was ok, not the big "I AM LEGEND!" reveal I was hoping for. -
Think I'll give this one a miss until it drops on DVD.
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If they decided to make Lord of the Rings set in modern-day Paris France for no reason, and it was basically the transporter, but all the characters ran around with names from the book it still wouldn't be Lord of the Rings and the fan base would have had a shit-fit.
Same thing here. So yeah, I'm a little ticked. They should have called this something else. Omega-Man. I kill the dead. ANYTHING and I would have been right there with you going "Oh Neat, Apocalyptic Time-Square."
Also, how did the deer and lions get onto Manhattan? all bridges and tunnells were destroyed.
Central park zoo I assume.
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Call it something else. Heck, the whole point of the book is in the title. Call it 'Omega Man' reboot, or whatever other remake excuse of a title.
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I was really looking forward to this, maybe I was expecting too much. The first half hour was great. Loved seeing New York abandoned and it was shot beautifully. W.S. did a great job over all. I'm not a CGI hater, but the Dark Seekers reminded me of bad CG from Van Helsing. It really took me out of the story -- the rest of the work was stellar, but those Dark Seekers sucked ass. It's actually a bit boring after a while and could have used more action in my opinion.
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Haven't seen the movie yet, more interested in the footage from The Dark Knight. As far as hunting with an actual UZI, 9mm isn't exactly the most effective hunting round (neither is the 5.56mm M4 which Neville/Smith uses). But if it is a select fire weapon and with the right ammo, you could probably drop a deer with one - assuming you could get close enough and that you shoot well.
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How can it be disappointing if it's what you expected? .....
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Probably not. The names aside, the film adaptation has more in common with 28 days later then I AM LEGEND - and would have been accused of it.
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It wasn't his blood that was the antidote. It was the blood of the vampire that he injected with a potential cure. That vampire started returning to a normal human state. He had found a cure.
That being said, I really enjoyed the movie. I guess there are some vagaries in the story but I wasn't thinking about them as I watched b/c I guess I was busy being entertained. It had some really good, jumpy moments. One caveat, I didn't care for the scene with the dog being attacked and infected. It was one of those "Oh c'mon, you and the dog could easily get to the truck and be safe" moments. The mercy killing of the pooch was touching. (Old Yeller used to make me cry. Dammit, why do I love dogs so?) -
was pretty damn cool. Can't wait for the non-bootleg trailer.
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So Frodo and Sam were gay after all....
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I only found two things wrong with the film, 1) The film should have started when the outbreak happens and not seen in flashbacks, and 2) They should have used human actors for the infected and not have relied so much on the CGI. This film would have been great if they would have used human infected because the CGI takes away from the realism and horror. Will Smith did an excellent job in this film and he should be considered for an Oscar, he was that good. A note to future directors, do not use CGI for portraying zombies or infected humans, use the CGI as little as possible.
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was pretty damn cool and the film will be very good. Heath Ledger looks to be a good Joker because this Joker does not seem to look for laughs, but looks to be more ruthless.
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if you thought the awful CGI in I,ROBOT was anything other than horrid.
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because the spoiler you noted in your post is a "TWIST." the novella itself is about man's will to survive when everything else is lost. Certainly I Am Legend is influential, but more as a result of its film versions than as literature. The book itself certainly is pulp in the tradition of Philip Dick, Lovercraft, Anderson et al
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10 bucks is a lot
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Dec 14, 2007 8:29:51 PM CST
1 hour 25 minutes = really good. Last 15 minutes = horrifically
by fluffyunbound
OK, to get my nitpicks for the good part of the movie out of the way first: 1) The guy has one uninfected companion, which has become his surrogate child, and he doesn't leave the damn dog at home during the day? That's all he has to do to have the dog be perfectly safe. 2) He's the world's smartest virologist, but he doesn't immediately realize that the mannequin was moved by the creatures? 3) He's had three years to fortify his residence against creatures that can climb multiple stories at will, and the windows on the upper floors aren't barricaded? 4) He was in charge of fighting the virus, but doesn't know about the Bethel VT fortress? 5) He's been broadcasting every day, but the people in Vermont haven't broadcasted back to him? OK, but those are nitpicks. The real problem is of course the last fifteen minutes. After perfectly setting up the REAL ending, they give us that shite ending? Boooooooooo. Because in 2007 it's not OK to make a movie where an American military scientist is undone by fear and misunderstanding of the other, and didn't know when he crossed the line and became the bad guy? No, that wouldn't have been a good call at all, right? Boooooooo.
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there's a reason they exist, ya know? letting the cat out of the bag about finding 2 more humans alive? I understand that YOU might think it's unimportant, but people should be able to judge for themselves, yeah? at any rate, it falls smack dab in the middle of what the term "spoiler" defines, wouldn't you say?BOX IT UP! this film has 2 good reviews, and I bought $1000 of Time Warner stock 3 weeks ago since I think this film is going to be huge. don't spoil it! PLEASE!
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In the very beginning, Emma Thompson talks about how the virus hyperstimulates the body. The virus in this movie actually made a rough kind of sense for a change. The infected pretty much are speed freaks amped up beyond all reason, as you point out. I guess that leads to the question of what 10% of the population of Manhattan, jumped up with triple metabolism, has been eating for three years - but maybe a certain % of the darkseekers had been killed while the police and army could still fight back.
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Or the main one is that it felt like they scissored out about 30 minutes of pacing that really helped the movie start strong--and I mean strong. Great first half of the movie. CGI was too much, but I'll give it a pass, and would give it much more a pass if the pace had been slowed down a little bit at the end. I would have preferred it turned out the vampires were more human and Neville was a murdering monster in their world, and he could have realized that . . . that might have been cool. Or he could have started curing the vampires, and find out they hated being cured, that being a bloodthirsty vampire was exactly like having a 24-hour orgasm. Something like that. On the whole, I give it top marks, and will watch it again.
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Some dicey effects diminish the scariness of the vamps, but Smith's performance is very strong, the story is confidently and leanly told and the look was great. I give it a solid 3/4. Worth seeing in a theatre for the sound design and epic visual impact.
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The film is going to tear up the box office, I will betcha. However, Time Warner has a lot more financial liabilities than I Am Legend, just so ya know.
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And I only went to see this because, I really wanted to see, of course the Batman: Dark Knight 6 min. prologue. My only complaint were the 'creatures', even though they sounded scary and it gets under your skin, the look & conceptualization was rather poor.
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Wouldn't the smart thing to do be figuring out the deer's game trail patterns and then once that's figured out station yourself in an area where you'll inflict maximum kill rate, in otherwords on top of a building or a billboard or in a perched area above ground. Seems much smarter than chasing your food like a dumbass in your cherry Ford Mustang with a rifle that can only shoot one bullet at a time. At least a powerful automatic weapon as I'm sure they're plentiful in a city like New York. This shit is stupid.
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thought this type of thing has been done to death, but somewhat looking forward to it noW
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In a couple of different scenes we see Neville pouring bleach on his scent trail. I assume that the "smart" infected leader determined that the mannequin was a "friend" of Neville because his scent was all over the video store. And the leader guy had recovered enough brain function to realize what the mannequin was for.
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I have been looking forward to this since the early AHnold/Prosovetch (sp?) incarnation, what was that 10 years ago? I saw this movie with no expectations, and I wasn't surprised about my reaction; it was ok. Many of the talkbackers have touched on the the real nits, many of which might have been made mute had they kept this in San Fransisco rather than a cut off Manhattan. My biggest positive surprise was Will Smith's take of Charlton Heston's Neville; obviously, this movie had no REAL roots in the source material, other than the tone of the first 2/3rds. My biggest disappointment could have been solved with more exposition...just seemd too tight without enough explanation (why did he think it was HIS fault, and not Krippen's? His place in the big picyure was not explained...Heston's was done very well) and not making the point that Manhattan was cut off and his blood did NOT cure directly, which is a HUGE nit at the end (think about it, it'll come to you), I also had a real problem with the Dark Seekers...too much of the original AHnold concept, too little of the source material. I Would have loved an homage to Tony Zerbe or further fleshing out the Alpha figure..something...too much CGI...
Definately going to buy the DVD when it comes out. I hope there is extra material they can re-edit in for a Director's cut that may be more enjoyable. -
Uh, it is. And NO there are no scantilly clad women and Neville is not Ash from Amy of the Dead, it is a quiet, sad story. Amazing. This movie I will watch but probably not compare it to the book
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5.56 will drop and kill a deer, no problem, especially at the range he was. his was semi-automatic, which is probably better since you have to drive all around the city looking for ammo, and i'm sure those homos in NY don't have a gunshop on every street like we do down here in texas. regardless, you don't want to swap out magazines with those vamps running around, so I'd stick with semi. but I WOULD have tried to at least get my hands on a fully automatic shotgun. shotgun shells are abundant almost anywhere you go.
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You must scare easily, Capone. Possibly the least convincing CGI monster effects I've seen in a big budget blockbuster not directed by Stephen Sommers.
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I AM LEPRECHAUNSTARRINGwarick davis, coolio, special appearance by jeremy irons as kathy bates' front entrance
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And should have stuck to the original short story which is more a psychological piece than a horror story.
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The CGI was AWFUL. It looked liked they used the character CGI from the Brendan Frasier MUMMY film. It took me right out of the film. This could have been made so much better with 90% actors and 10% CG.
I don't care about the lil things: Gas, Water, blah the fuckin' blah. DON'T CARE. However, the whole movie just missed one last piece of something grand. It was like a 5000 piece monster puzzle, and at the very end you notice that one tiny piece is missing. It's done, but it's just not quite right.
Smith does a great job of carrying an entire movie on his shoulers. I'll give him that. There were a few scenes where it could have been a bit more tight, but they let it slip through.
Best moments for me was chasing Sam into the unknown building.
Worst moment was the entire last 20 minutes or so. What a bunch of shite. Sweet lord it was kicked in the balls and swallow a Jallapeno at the same time lame. Some weak ass shite.
Overall B-
I feel no need to own this thing, and as a fan of the story, well, this isn't it. Hell, I'm not so sure that Arnold (10 years ago) couldn't have done this pic.
Last Man On Earth is still my favorite adaptation of this work. -
sluts
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damn! beaten to the quick!
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Just watched I am Legend, and despite never reading the book, thought it was pretty good. Wasn't what I expected. Thought it would be more of an action movie, but worked very well. I find Smith to be a good actor and he carried it well by himself for the most part. I was interested in his way of life, and would have been interested if it would have been nothing but about that. I would have to agree that I was a little disappointed in the infected people, thought it would work better if they would have been real people and CGI used for more wide shots and the climbing and jumping around that was done, but all in all was pleased with them movie in whole and would recommend it to anybody
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I disagree. The main idea of the book wasn't just about survival, although that was apart of it early on. Matheson was questioning the perception of normalcy by turning the tables on the Human race, or the 'twist' as you put it. As one poster put it, it was a 'psychological piece more than a horror story.'
And I believe the book is far more influential to other writers than the movies.
Also calling me M. Night Shyamalan? Them's fightin' words, man. lol -
The contrived, happy crappy ending was a slap in the face to Matheson (God told the bitch where this fortress was? Really? How is that not fucking retarded?) and the voiceover at the end completely stepped on and destoyed the final, ironic meaning of the title. People who haven't read the book might roll their eyes a bit at the lameness off the ending but people who have read the book and are hoping for a respecful rendering are going to be very disappointed. Whatever happened to seeing honest reviews on this site. Does everybody just suck studio dick now? From reading the reviews om AICN you'd think we were living in a fucking golden age of movies. Everything is 5 stars.
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I thought it could have used more flashbacks. To scenes like when Night Seekers first start appearing in NY and him finally realizing he was alone. That was a beautiful Shepherd. I love those dogs, so loyal and intelligent. I knew it wasn't gonna go well for him. Damn I hate getting choked up in the theater. Oh, and for my nerdish-know-it-all input of the day. You don't have to wash German Shepherds. They shed so much, they shed the dirt right off and washing them with soap can dry out their skin. In a survival situation I would have saved the water. Oh, yeah. The creature effects were horrible and a waste of money. Why not use actors? That was a
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For those of you who've seen the film..So, Big Willy gets up every morning and washes his Cherry Red Ford GT to a polished shine (there's not a mark on it) and then drives it around a desolate time square to hunt deer in it's lush long grass. I mean seriously, grass growing in Time Square? There's no dirt in Times Square.. so in less then five years or so GRASS has grown in no soil, and through 12 feet of steal and concrete.
This feels like Transformers Jungle Fatigues in the Desert. -
Will Smith doing the Jiggy dance in "I Am Legend" would have been just wrong!
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Dec 15, 2007 1:49:44 AM CST
Nope, they sure don't make pictures like that anymore.
by anakin whoopass
See it... really realize... what's really important... important is the fact that... can't all live together and be happy... if you have to be afraid to walk out in the street... if you have to be afraid to smile at somebody... right?
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I enjoyed it And I'm not the Biggest Will Smith Fan but his skills have improved, in this movie he was not allowed to improvise. (except for the bacon comment.) If you nerds can get over the gas and the whole not being a direct translation you can see that this is a intriguing movie. I just can't see how anyone can enjoy the bombastic simplicity of Transformers and Dis this. Maybe I should Cryogenically freeze myself and be the rulers of the future morons to come. thats a Idiocracy reference.
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You guys hardly Mention the "Worlds finest" poster and if it actually and does it have any real world applications.
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Will does a great job, and his emotion reflects on screen perfectly. Anyone who disagrees, obviously hasn't seen the film.
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the funniest thing ever said on the Chappelle Show.
Also, SPOILERS the movie has several parallels to Signs to me. What with the way the flashbacks were put structured into the film and the whole epiphany with the butterfly at the end (like a sign) -
No matter what the h4t0rs say :-)
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Actually, the grass isn't a nitpick for me. The grass didn't break through the asphalt - it's ON TOP of it. Without street cleaning you'd have enough dirt for grass to grip on from wind action alone after the first year. Not to mention that it's NYC, so all the paper, trash and crap - along with a few million dead bodies - have been rained on and dried out about 1000 times and probably turned to dust that has accumulated in the streets. The grass was OK by me.
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HOLY SHIT. WHO OPENS A ZOMBIE/VAMPIRE MOVIE TO THAT KIND OF BOX OFFICE?
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the implication is that the world will end before a worlds' finest movie is made.
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Dec 15, 2007 7:47:20 AM CST
Saw it last night, and was shocked by how long the line was.
by creasybear
I figured it would be No. 1 this weekend, but I've never seen a line like that at my theater. It's kind of grim and serious to bring in so much box office. Liked the movie, personally. Will Smith does give a great performance with range and depth, I gotta admit. This coming from someone who is definitely not a fan of the "Aww-Hail-Naw" Will Smith.
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but it sucked. All the theaters were full here in Phoenix.
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The Blair Witch first shot of the creatures. That was basically the only thing I liked.
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First, let me say to all haters if you haven't seen this, go see it, then give your opinion good or bad all you want. It was everything I wanted in a post-apocalyptic flick. Action, good plot (no, not a typo, good plot). Look I've never read the book so I will not compare the two. I own Last Man on Earth, and it's an okay movie. I loved Omega Man. There are no vampires in this, and of course we all know that Will Smith is not the last man. rxse7en mentioned the scene with the trap. But, he didn't get it, (no offense) and I bet a lot of moviegoers didn't get it. These are not mindless creatures. In one part the Neville character says the creatures have devolved to where there is not sense of humanity or sociological nature left into them. That is where he is wrong. They have lost intelligence, but aren't stupid. When Neville captures the creature for his experiment, he baits a snare in the dark with his own blood, the snare is tripped, the creature is bagged, and pulled out by the dead weight of a droppped automobile. We see another creature in the dark, it comes out for a couple seconds, gets singed by the sun as they are effected by UV, and goes back into the dark. This creature does have compassion, and humanity if you can call it that. He is sad and angry one of his people, perhaps mate were stolen. Are they smart? They not only used the same snare on Neville, but were smart enough to know how to bait it. And, when they released the mutant dogs on him they handled their dogs, just like he handles his. Oh yes, they're smart, they communicate, and they have a leader. Smith brought serious emotion to this role. Not up their with Hanks in Castaway, but he was great. This is the first movie in a long time that had "scary" scenes that actually were scary. Hey, I loved it. If you don't that's fine, but there's my two cents.
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Not a great movie. Not a BAD movie. But, DAMN! it's mostly an entertaining movie. Ending's whacked. "Smif" is on top of his, uh, "form" here. Few stupid one-liners, some actual acting. Yah, the CGI is INYOURFACE obvious and a little obnoxious. Didn't really hurt the experience for me. I've seen both Last Man on Earth and Omega Man and one of the few on this forum to have actually READ the novel (picked up in the 80s for, like, 10 cents at a second-hand bookstore). Like "The Shrinking Man", it's nothing like the book, but what are you going to do? Let's all google "Richard Matheson" and enjoy what that old man has given us in our geek lives, okay?
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I understand that they/he were "learning" from Neville, I just don't think the act of recreating the snare was enough to outweigh the fact that it was just one "infected" becoming/remaining intelligent. Based on that view, then the alpha male was also the last of his kind, as it seemed every other one of the infected was just plain brainless.
Don't get me wrong here, I enjoyed this movie, I just don't think it should be compared to "Last Man on Earth" or the novel too much. I just didn't get the sense that these creatures were the new human paradigm and that Neville was now the monster. See what I'm saying? That was always the cool twist to the story. :D -
Oh yes in Last Man on Earth the movie, and maybe the book which I really need to get around to reading some day, but in the movie anyway Price became the monster unbeknownst to him until the end. You have a good point, maybe it was only one of them left who was intelligent, but I don't think so. Because in Legend there was one in the house ripping the hole in the ceiling so everyone could rush in, and it wasn't the leader. He was still outside giving directions, if you can call the same howl he used everytime giving directions. They seemed to understand what he meant though. And I'm not trying to compare this to the novel or Las Man in any way. I enjoyed it for what it was, and I enjoyed it immensely. The only thing I did not like was when they were climbing into the house was that scene was lifted from I, Robot. Other than that it was great.
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I read it as a small boy during the Cuban Missile Crisis of May 1962. Scared the total crap out of me, but I couldn't put it down. Rereading it now, it is a product of the atomic age. So much of it's imagery has to do with Los Angeles in the middle of a nuclear winter.
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I was mostly happy with the movie, but was perplexed by the fact that the plot thread that was obviously meant to be important concerning an intelligent, planning zombie was never developed. I kept expecting Smith's character to at least comment on it, but he never even mentions it, even after being caught in the zombie's trap. I suspect this is the result of unfortunate editing, and hope it is explained in some future director's cut dvd.
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intelligent zombie angle. I think it was clearly there, just subtle. They build the same trap he made for them means they're intelligent. The facial expressions and the actions of the "zombies," it's all there even if it's in CGI. Okay, maybe a comment by Neville saying "oh crap I was wrong" would have been good. I didn't need to be beat over the head with it. As a matter of fact, the more I think about it, it wasn't subtle it was obvious, just not spoken. In this age of short-attention span Bayified moviegoers maybe some needed to be hit over the head with a sledgehammer. Think about it though, Neville hadn't been with a person so long he could hardly speak or interact even when she was a hottie. When he realizes he was wrong he's too busy trying to save himself and the others to think about how wrong he was.
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It looked liked typical Sandler, stupidly funny and entertaining with a good cameo by Rob Schneider. They filmed one of his movies in my hometown. Too bad it was Deeds.
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Actually, most Will Smith movies are placed around the July 4th weekend which is a pretty competetive slot. If he's got no competition, it's not because the studio chose a weekend without any but because the other studios avoid opening against him. You may not care for him, but most people do and his name alone opens movies. Frankly, I think he's a good actor and I don't want him to go away any time soon.
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Actually, most Will Smith movies are placed around the July 4th weekend which is a pretty competetive slot. If he's got no competition, it's not because the studio chose a weekend without any but because the other studios avoid opening against him. You may not care for him, but most people do and his name alone opens movies. Frankly, I think he's a good actor and I don't want him to go away any time soon.
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Little Chipmunks bouncing around the recording studio I bought into. A super fake X-Box looking Ford Mustang sliding over a background like its on an ice rink, a ridiculously fake looking lion, and laughabily non-scary zombies took away from the show.
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You know it to be true
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You saw in the film a subtleness that some seem to miss declaring the film "boring"
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two academy award nominations.
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I'm glad I'm not the only ones to see it, but like I said it's subtle to a point, but if you can't see it you just don't have an attention span longer than the average Michael Bay explosion.
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...that plot thread leads to Neville realizing that he's the legendary monster now, he's Dracula, and has to die. And that's not how they wanted to end the movie. They wanted to end the movie with Neville being a legend like Bob Marley, not like Jeffrey Dahmer. So they had to let it go. BTW, I'm happy I wasn't the only one who thought that the female caught in Neville's snare was the Alpha Male's mate.
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This movie solidifies it.
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Man. To many haters on this site. Here's a little break from them.
Anyway, Will Smith delivers a performance that rivals the best of Denzel Washington (IMO.) I know you don't want to hear me go on about Smith but he definitely does carry the movie.
I, like most of you, had a problem with the CG. But, get over it. If you're not complaining about poor CG, then you're complaining about using it too much or to little. The CG wasn't great and it wasn't horrible.
Concerning the alpha-male infected, I thought that was a little silly. It didn't work in Land of the Dead and I couldn't see it working here.
I really liked the story. I loved the struggles Neville had maintaining his sanity.
"Fred! Fred what you doin our here!?" Haha
Overall, this viewer gives it 3 1/2 stars.
P.S To the haters, instead of playing WOW for 2 more hours a day, pay 10 bucks and see the fucking movie. -
I guess the zombie genre isn't dead after all. And yes, Mindradio, Smith does really good work. Frankly it's probably the best acting in a genre film since Ford and Hauer in BR. Gotta give credit where credit is due.
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...Afterall, he wrote one of the best existential novels of all time: The Incredible Shrinking Man.
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I thought Smith's performance was thankfully more subdued than usual. I actually enjoyed him in this movie. I thought that they failed to make the alpha vamp a deeper character. He was adept at learning and seemed to genuinely care about the female. Something they never explored.
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Howard Terrance? What move is he in? Flow & Hustle? I hear he may turn up in Man Iron as Monger Iron. Moron.
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Butterfly bullshit?
I'm not seeing the movie in the theater. They aren't getting my $10.00, but I am curious if they really did go that route and whether people fell for it. -
The Pursuit of Happyness did over 162 million dollars domestically...That doesn't include the 200 million over seas + ancilliary profits i.e. DVD, Cable and subsequent television syndication.
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"They might as well have done a CGI negro" Wow, you are a douchebag. Go fuck yourself.
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If they didn't keep the ending of the book, twas all for naught.
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The short story by Robert Matheson on which this movie is partially based upon was about perspective and the human reluctance to accept change. Although they got the character of Robert Neville 99% right -- a mixture of mad scientist, survivalist and hopeful man -- they got the infected 100% wrong.
The book makes a case for the infected in that, as natural selection would dictate, Neville is now the monster that makes things go bump in the day while the infected, who are now the normals, are resting. A mindless yet occasionally clever monster is no match for a brutally cold and calculating human being and I would have enjoyed seeing Ben Cortman playing mind games with Will Smith's Neville much more than the nameless weirdo that violates his home for the film's climax.
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The movie was great...up until the end. Way too abrubt....and it was disappointing that the protagonist had to kill himself. Listen...here's the worst part of the movie. Will Smith knows that UV lights hurt these things...and he has all of these defenses in his house...but come on...you'd have to be a moron not to figure out what he should have done. That entire house should have been lit by UV lites. They should have been in every hallway, every room. The "vampires" would have never been able to get in. If I knew UV lites hurt those things...that would be the first thing I would do to survive the night. Screw bording up the windows. I would have UV lites everywhere. I mean...you'd have to imagine how scary of a scenario he was living in. That would be the first thing on my mind, and probably anyones minds to do.
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Dec 15, 2007 6:32:05 PM CST
Biggest Flaw. Smallest Spoiler. (strap their fuckin' heads down!
by future help
when Nevile has the Infected straped/tied down in his lab...HE DOES NOT tie down their foreheads and chest. WTF? that obviously really bugged me. ALSO, even after 1,0000 days...he needs the alarm on his watch to REMIND him it's getting dark soon.? haha. OTHERWISE, i really enjoyed it.
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The movie was excellent, until "help" arrived and that's when the movie went to shit. There were so many plot holes too. Oh, and the CGI effects of the "dark seekers" were HORRIBLE. They looked like videogame characters, especially the head-honcho creature. I don't know why they chose crappy CGI, over more believeable make-up/costumes/pratical effects. What a big mistake to use CGI! Anyway, it was still a good movie, but with some major disappointments.
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Dec 15, 2007 7:45:24 PM CST
Very entertaining...trailer for the Dark Knight...and the movie
by davywankenobi
But the end is a bit abrubt...not bad, but abrubt. That and a few pot holes(no UV in the house?!?)are about the worst things I can say about it. I also thought the CG was a bit lacking, but not horrid. I would like to read the book, but as a long time comic fan, I've learned to accept different interpretations of source material and judge them on their own merits. It's a decent movie, great solo job by Smith. Just don't expect *Insert favorite movie here* and you will enjoy a lot of these movies you trash all the time. This whole talkbacker mentality of shitting on anything that you don't consider perfect...sheesh. Lighten up. By the way, *SPOILER* the plague is REALLY caused when Burger King quits offering the Whopper!
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The Justice League poster in movie?
Thought that was cool. I is a bat symbol with Superman's "S" inside of it. -
WTF? IS that a hint of a movie?
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I have to admit it was better than I anticipated BUT the Darkseekers looked cheesey. Especially when the leader walked out the dark with 2 zombie dogs. The worst! It had a PS2 look. The only scene that was on point was when they were huddled around feasting on the dead deer.
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there's a reason why they exist, AICN!! this review contains a big spoiler, so it should have a box. very simple. several people have mentioned it, and no dice. you guys still read the talkbacks, yeah?
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no volleyball, no good movie
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to hellz with convention, pretense, and SoD. Pull out the Voltron Sword and go Medieval. LoL.
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Heck, they did a great job with the practical Reapers in Blade 2, should have gone CGI for everyone except Big Daddy, and that should have been Doug Jones.Other than that, a fine flick, my favorite of the three tellings of this tale.
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Is the one I agree with most. The end of the movie is way to rushed, and having taken the time with it they way they did with the first part would have been great.Unstoppable vampires: it was a lot cooler when they set the trap, when they let out vampire dogs and stayed back themselves, than when they were doing the i, robot/spiderman thing. Too much. They were scarier when they were hidden, and showing signs of intelligence and plotting. Still, whatever they were going to do, it would have been better if they had taken their time in the last act. I liked the thrust of it, even when the new folks, pretty well--it just came and went and was done in a jiffy. After the careful pacing of the first half of the movie, that seemed a little odd.
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Pretty much. He actual carries the freakin thing, and there are moments of outright seat jumping danger here and there.
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if the infected are harmed by sunlight, and they are at least somewhat clever, why don't they grab like a long coat, hat and gloves and then be able to go out in the day?
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..only one is and that is the movie's "Bub." The rest are mindless psuedo-zombie-like vampires.
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Dec 16, 2007 12:41:48 AM CST
I actually thought Neville got caught by his own trap
by thebearovingian
Anybody else think that? I thought that was showing him losing his mind and sense of reality. Like he forgot about putting the mannequin out there as a trap to capture another darkseeker. And it showed his blood dripping down from a cut on his head into that puddle beneath him (and the blood would draw the darkseekers there). Granted there was no dark blanket that wrapped around him like the other trap where he captured the female so... Anyway, that's what I thought b/c they never really mentioned the vamps intelligence. I guess I was wrong.
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because Hollywood can shovel you a bunch of shit and then they can give you a movie that takes risks and respects your intelligence and most of you fellas can't even tell the difference. This is a very good movie. I got a couple problems with it but most of it is outstanding. If I dismissed it because it's not exactly the book or because I wish they could trade the CGI vampires for the scarier live action ones from 30 DAYS OF NIGHT it would be superficial, like I was only paying attention to the surface and not the actual substance and heart of the movie. The important thing to me is that a huge movie star, and a studio, went and made a horror movie, and they had the balls to make it a sad, thoughtful, quiet one that is more about character than action or effects, more about loss than about kicking ass or jumping because there's a loud noise. Will Smith has made moronic sci-fi (INDEPENDENCE DAY), painfully horrible sci-fi comedy (WILD WILD WEST), mediocre sci-fi comedy (MEN IN BLACK), half intelligent/half stupid hybrid sci-fi action (I, ROBOT)... this is the first time he's made a serious genre movie, and he is clearly approaching the role as one of his "real movies," his Oscar bait dramas like ALI. It's a movie that tells most of its story visually instead of spoonfeeding the answers to you, and expects you to be intelligent enough to understand it and not have to come onto this talkback and point out "inconsistencies" that are clearly covered in the movie, just not by some dude looking into the camera explaining it to you. Even in the uneven effects the ones that work best are the effects on the city, because the emphasis is on the atmosphere over the usual show offy things like rampaging monsters. (In fact I like that the monsters aren't on screen all that much. It's about servicing the story instead of showing off the budget or giving you a set number of gimmicks to show in the trailer.)
What I'm saying is I can understand why somebody would not like this movie or would think it was a failure, but it makes me sad that you can't at least acknowledge that they were trying to make a serious movie and not the usual Hollywood bullshit.
In my opinion this is the best movie version of the story, although I enjoy the other two for their own qualities. The book is the best version and I think that like Dracula it's a story good enough to be enjoyed in a million different permutations. I'd like to see somebody remake it every 20 years. This is the closest to the tone of the book if not to the specifics of it. Personally I'm glad that they did not follow it to the letter. The scientific explanations of traditional vampire weapons like garlic was a great idea at the time but now it's been done to death and would seem corny. And I like the ending better in the book but it would be fuckin terrible to translate that internal monologue to cinematic form. If you're gonna tell me you'd rather hear Will Smith narrating why he is legend I am gonna call your pants on fire. The portrayal of the vampires as non-talkers left mostly in the shadows is a good take on the story that puts more emphasis on Neville and his isolation.
Also I would like to take this time to thank Jesus for getting Michael Bay off of this movie. And Arnold before that. I'm sure that would've been a funny action movie and I'd like to see what Ridley Scott would've done, but no fuckin way Arnold's Robert Neville would've held a candle to what Will Smith does here. -
My issue with the movie isn't that it's good or bad (I rather liked Omega Man for what it was). I just wished they had called it something else, because it's clearly not the book at its center. If they want to remake the Omega Man, fine, but don't call it 'I Am Legend.'
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Well okay, but then maybe DRACULA shouldn't be called DRACULA either. To me that's a small thing. It's weird that they've done it 3 times without ever really being the same as the book, but that just speaks to what a great idea it is, I guess. To me it is faithful to the main things I like about the book, even if it goes off in different directions.
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The main conceit of Dracula was the same in the movies as in the book though (for better or worse). But the main idea behind I am Legend, is different. I don't know, to me if they're going to veer that far off from the source material they should call it something else. Far be it from me to not suggest they do something orginal. heh.
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It's kind of like a serial killer killing 50 people. He may think he's 'normal' for doing this, but that doesn't change the fact that he's a 'monster' according to society.
That's kind of the way it is in 'I am Legend', only the Vampires have become 'society.'
That's never been in any of the movies ... well, maybe The Last Man on Earth, a little.
Anyway,
peace -
I actually liked this movie, especially after especting to be so-so on it. I really was only going to see it because my friends were looking for something to do, this popped up, I remembered the Dark Knight trailer was attached, and we went. After being somewhat underwhelmed by the Dark Knight trailer (most likely because I watched the bootleg a gazillion times), this movie was definitely a surprise. I usually stear clear of Will Smith movies, but, if there is anything good to say about this movie at all, it's that he was great in it. Not comedic, not over-reaching and overbearing in his performance, actually pretty nuanced. But his performance isn't the only good thing about this movie. There were some nailbiting scenes of genuine terror (unexpected for a pg-13), great visuals of abandoned Manhattan, a sadness that didn't come off as artificial at all (especially the "old yeller" scene). The parts that were bad, while few and far between, are prominent in the film. Too much CGI. It does tend to take you out of the film. This next nitpick might be weird, but too much clothes on the monsters. I think they should have been nude. I'm sure there could have been a way to do this without getting an R rating. It would have added a scarier, more primevil element to the monsters. With sleeveless shirts and pants they sort of reminded me of common street thugs from cheap '80s films. A huge complaint is that I would have liked to see how a cured monster acted. Would memories of human life have come rushing back to it? Would its brain have de-evolved to a point to make this impossible? We did not get these answers sadly.
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He set his alarm every day to a different time because sunrise and sunset change every day. That is why he had the farmer's almanac out checking the dates. Those things come out the instant the sun is gone. I'd want to know the EXACT times thousands of freaks were coming out too. I'm not trying to be too negative but so many talkbalkers are just not only way too nitpicky, but seriously have been Bayified to the point where all they want to see it boom boom, and can't pick up on subtle, yet important details.
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1) How were the infected able to find his home? If they followed him, then why weren't they attacked immediately? Can't be just because he didn't put bleach on his front steps, or they would have found him sooner.
1) Try watching the movie again. He got home while it was still dark. They followed him.
(2) Not only were the hunting, lack of fully protecting his home (protection for upper floors, UV lighting, better weapons, etc.) silly, but how could he live there and survive the winter? Can’t go out of his home without footprints.
2) The movie took place in the fall, who's to say he didn't stay inside during the winter.
(3) The movie did not contain the scene from the trailer where Neville is standing amongst the infected as if he were trying to reason/talk with them.
3) I'll give you that one.
(4) This Neville was not a hunter/killer of the infected; once he found that nest, if had access to hand grenades and C-4, he should have gone back and dusted them.
4) He was tryng to cure, not kill.
(5) Like how becoming infected makes one super strong, super fast, and the ability to scale lamp posts and the sides of buildings. Stupid, stupid decision (busting through that lab reinforced steel lab door was ludicrous, as was doing a Spider-Man impersonation while being shot at).
5) It's like someone hopped up on PCP and adrenaline. Add the lowered intelligence, and there you go.
(6) Also stupid how Neville seems indestructible himself - falls out of a 2-story building onto the ground without a scratch, as well as his lack of injury (other than his own knife) from cutting himself down from about 10 feet in the air.
6)You need to seriously watch the movie again. He fell on top of one of the creatures. It helped cushion the blow.
(7) How does a Lt. Col. afford a house like that? And did he always have a lab down there? Tough to imagine a person, as the world is falling apart around him, having the ability by himself to haul all that equipment and material there.
8)Three years is a lot of time to put a shelter like that together. It seemed like a classy place, so it was probably owned by a hospital or university or something, and he was assigned the housing while working there for the military. The Time magazine cover article, and the news flashes made it appear he was the only one who could save society, so they're going to station him in a nice place.
(8) If the cold is what stops the virus from advancing (remember that Neville lowered the infected woman’s body temperature to assist with his cure), then why wouldn’t New York City also benefitted? Gets pretty damn cold there, too.
8)Yeah, and it gets pretty hot there too. To quote Lovin' Spoonful "Hot town (or is it time) summer in the city"
(9) (a) Two questions - after Neville blew up the cars around his house and he went upstairs and saw blood dripping, whose blood was that? I thought it was the woman’s or her kid’s at that point; and (b) What were the infected doing in that bank when Neville went in looking for his dog? Were they eating the deer? Couldn’t tell.
9 a) I don't know b) I don't think they were eating the deer because when he leaves doesn't he find one creature over the deer that blowws the whistle? Does it really matter what they were doing?
(10) I think that it would have been better for the infected woman who was being cured to have been fully cured (and eliminate the woman and her kid entirely), then have her try to communicate with the other infected to get them cured. Or to at least have her tell Neville how they fear him from his exterminating/experimenting on them. Would have been more in tune with the book.
10) That's your opinion. They sort of tried that angle in The Omega Man. You say you liked this, and will buy the DVD,but man you are waaaaaaaay to nitpicky, and seriously need to see the movie again. It seems you missed out on a lot of things. I really think you need to un-Bayify yoursef.
Vern is right, everyone here needs to seriously chill out on the nitpickyness and negativity. -
I couldn't agree more. The only action movies I ever go see are superhero movies (especially Batman). To me, attacking an audience with explosions as a form of entertainment is like dangling a set of keys in front of a raccoon. Filmmakers need to appreciate or in the very least acknowledge the intelligence of their audience more. When I see a movie and there's an explosion, there had better be a damn good reason for it. I'm at a point as a discerning filmgoer (who's been fed mindless actioners his entire childhood), that I appreciate long periods of downtime in a film, so long as it uses it to build up the tension, ala I Am Legend. In fact, having just seen I Am Legend, I don't think there was a point in the film where they used an unnecessarily loud noise for a cheap scare (though the 14-year-old girls sitting behind me might disagree), or riddled it with explosions (which I am POSITIVE Arnold's version would have done). Sure there was an explosion, but it was warranted and not overly glorified in any way. Can you tell by now that I'm not a fan of explosions?
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at the appropriate times.
What I want to see is a movie that gets this fast zombie thing right. I want to see a tv anchorman reporting about the outbreak in a realistic tone, "The virus, which deadens human emotion yet drives the human body beyond its theoretical boundries, has infected 95 percent of the population,, fortunately, 98 percent of them were felled by an acl injury sustained in a superhuman leap towards the nearest clicking sound. They were easily dispatched with a brick to the head by the more common uninfected public." -
Dec 16, 2007 7:17:33 AM CST
dangling a set of keys in front of a raccoon is fine, yer nuts?
by ironic_name
not fine.
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No need to worry. My old lady keeps those in a lockbox somewhere.
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Thanks for the support. Hey, I like explosions, but in the right place, and they will never replace a plot.
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So remember boys and girls today's new word for today is Bayify (verb) def. - 1.to create a movie or scene where either the explosions block out any plot, or the plot is so bad the explosions tried to hide the fax. Ex. I Am Legend was not Bayified. 2). to have watched so many movies with explosions that your attention span has been shortened to the point to where you not only miss subtle plot points, but obvious plot points. ex. GreatOne2 was Bayified when he could not tell how the creatures tracked Nevilled even though Nevile told the girl it was because they drove home in the dark instead of waiting until dawn.
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your problem sounds familiar..by brother married a complete psycho.. but enough of that,did Nevile fuck the dog?
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i was slightly bayified.
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Hmmm, a good point that maybe it was his own trap. After all, we did see the mannequin head move, and he was losing it. But, here's two reasonss why I disagree. First, there was no blood in the trap until he hit his head. The first trap used blood to bait the mutants. Second, there was no bag to protect the mutant from the sunlight. But see, there you go, thinking of possibilities, and using your noggin'. You clearly have not been Bayified.
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this movie was like Cast Away but with vampires in the back of your mind. in essence, the movie was phenomenal because it wasn't dumbed down in the least. do i have the desire to read the book? no, i have better uses of my time like reading literature but that's all to the tastes of the individual. do i want to see this movie again? absolutely. the city itself was a character. there's a great article/story about how civilization would fall apart if there were no humans floating around on the internet somewhere. the city is almost a picturesque version of that article. and if no one cried when SAM's final moments come, you don't have a fucking heart.
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zombies. Having not read the book I don't know what the creatures were in it. In Last Man on Earth they were vampires for all intents and purposes. Omega Man and Legend the movie it was the same thing: they were humans which were mutated because of a virus that went awry. They weren't vampires, they weren't zombies, they were mutated slow thinking humans. Smith put so much into this because for most of the movie he was the only person in it. Gotta admit though, the dog was a great actor. Seriously, if they had academy awards in the animal category this dog would own.
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You people bitch about the dumbing down of film and we are finally given a deep, thoughtful big budget movie about life, love and loss and you spew your bile all over it. What I saw last night was a beautifully shot character drama/horror movie combo with some action scenes thrown in for good measure. The performance that Will Smith put into this film was amazing. It rivals his "art/indy" work. He gave 110% and the movie was so much better than I expected it to be that I am still thinking about it today. Hate all you want...Warner Brothers took a big risk with this film and I for one appreciate it. Thanks for not treating me like 13 year old boy with ADD.
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In fact, AW HELLS YEAH, perhaps?
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a few things, but at least we're not acting like juveniles a la you suck, no you suck, etc..... But back to the first question if you recall, and granted who can remember every detail of every movie, when he was brought back it was dark, but it was almost, but not quite dawn. Enough for them to track him, mark the spot, then come back the following night. I guess there's people that liked this, me I loved it, but hey, that's just me.
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I dunno guys. I enjoyed this movie but I did NOT enjoy the cgi vampires. It seemed unnecessary. I mean seriously, what about the vampires merited the need for them to be CGI? Their mouths opening wider? Didn't we see that in The Mummy? For me it was a let down. Especially because they built them up to be these terrifying things in the dark. That shot where you see their backs in the darkened warehouse, that is a really great moment. The cgi to make new york city look apocalyptic is great too. Probably some of the best I've seen in a good while... i don't think we're there yet with cgi. we've still got a long way to go, so until then, just use the actors you already fing have.
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Not saying much. People must be bored for entertainment.
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I like that there are a few scenes left ambiguous. For example somebody mentioned that he could've set the trap himself. I don't think he did, I think the vampire was copying his traps, but it's nice that that was unexplained so you can read what you want into it. I agree that they shouldn't have gone CGI but I did like that the villains were on the outskirts of the movie and you didn't really know exactly what they were doing (this worked well in 30 DAYS OF NIGHT too).
There was also a certain powerful scene involving an injection, and I think I know what went on in the scene but I thought of about 3 different ways to interpret it and all of them are good. And the vampire huddle in the dark that was mentioned earlier, I have no idea what they were doing and that's why it was creepy (probaly the best part showing the vampires, unfortunately). -
Seriously. Why is it I've read TWO glowing reviews for this movie on this site already? Moody, solemn character piece? Is that a joke? There's at least 3 explosions. And a dog. Bottom line is this, while a movie adaptation can't stay completely faithful to the source material (particularly if it's a major blockbuster), one would HOPE that they at least preserve the major themes of the piece. That's all I ask. The book has a terrific sense of monotany, futility, and in the end, one of the most brilliant ironies of modern literature related to its title--"I Am Legend." *SPOILER ALERT* The ending of THIS film is a ridiculous Hollywoodized perversion of the book's message. The irony of Neville being the monster, the Grendel, the Legend, that this new society fears is totally lost. I thought the weird "Bob Marley vs. Racism" monologue would have been poigniant if it turned out in the end that Neville was essentially genocidal without realizing it, but since the "Dark Seekers" were portrayed as nothing but wild dogs (who inexplicably can pull it together enough to set up a complicated trap) that irony is long gone. What's left is me imagining Will Smith walking onto the set one day and saying, "Hey, I've really been into Marley lately. I think we should use that." This movie was at best mediocre until the 3rd act when it blossomed into just plain bad. And conventional. I mean, Neville isn't even the last man on Earth. Not by a long shot. There's a whole bunch of Waterworld extras running around looking for dry land (it DOES exist!). Seriously, ending the movie by developing a cure is the most contrived, stupid decision they could have come up with. Gone is the awesome reveal about Neville's "guest." Instead, we get product placements for Crystal Geyser, Shrek, Ford, and God knows what else. Sorry, guys, but this movie couldn't have been less faithful to the spirit of the book if it had been a bio-pic about singer John Legend.
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I completely forgot about the explosions Neville detonated as the monsters converged on his house in the first place. What is an antonym for "Bayified" when you're so drawn to character and plot that you forget the explosions?
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yeah they definetly used the butterfly BS. but it was not "love conquers all" it was blatant christian propaganda. the whole movie was thrid act of the movie was god vs. science. im surprised more people didnt pick that up, or just werent as surprised about it as me. seriously though, did this guy direct the left behind series under a different name?!?! i guess jesus just rulz now a days. its weird too because we just got the mist, which is pretty much the opposite and tries to prove by there being monsters, that there is no god. it feels like legend was a response to the mist. i realllllllly wish they left all this relgious stuff out of legend. i mean, even the first thing they see when they enter the "compound" is a giant cross on a giant church. subtle are we?
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*the whole third act of the movie was god vs. science.
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Last Man on Earth in that Price's friend in the movie came back as one of the creatures if not the head one. Man, I seriously need to read this book. Perhaps my opinion of the movie may change slightly afterward, but I doubt it. I loved it for what it was. I'm with you on the Will Smith condemnation. I liked I, Robot, so shoot me haters, but anyway you gotta admit the scene where they invaded his house look almost exactly like the attack on US Robotics, at least when they were first climbing in.
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I would have loved to have him do a cameo, say the president giving the executive order. That would have made my day.
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you've seen, or will see they weren't being close to subtle about the religious tone that was displayed in the last scene.
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about that and forgot to ask if it was like this in any of the other adaptations or the novel itself. i guess it just seemed so out of place that i just assumed it was something we had to come up with in our times. thanks mang.
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at the end of Omega Man let me know, and I'll post the spoiler.
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made about 45 million opening weekend..? More than the two weekend take of Golden Compass?? New Line's shitting in their drawers right now, and with CGI "vampires" and "chipmunks" ruling the box office, look for more lunkhead producers to okay CGI effects when practical would do just fine.
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those weren't real polar bears in Golden Compass.
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I can recall the old sci-fi movies where all you saw living in a post-apocalyptic world were persons of the caucasion persuasion. Until the birth of Star Trek (bless Roddenberry) who knew people of other ethnicity existed. I have not seen this film but I plan to next week. Will Smith is a great actor. Perhaps if someone like golden boy Brad Pitt was the star of this movie it would get better reviews from the board.
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Great acting by Smith. He's incredible. A true star in a world without such. Otherwise... it's a mess of a film with no vision along with being utterly STUPID with any and all logic thrown out the window. The worst part was how the original novel's intent (by Richard freakin' horror master Matheson, not some asswipe know-nothing genre-wannabe) and ending was circumvented by the "God message." What tripe! You can see Smith's producer fingerprints all over that. Shit, this gets worse the more I think about it. It it wasn't for THE DARK KNIGHT trailer before the movie (with the audience cheering), the evening would have been an entire waste.
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I didn't think that Neville tried to use himself as bait but b/c his mind was slipping he wound up caught in his own trap. And then his blood would draw the bad guys (since he was out for hours). I should've said, "At first, I actually thought Neville got caught by his own trap." Grammaton- appreciate your comments.
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This movie is a star/producers' fingers in the pie fucked-up mess!
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I AM LEGEND's Matheson wrote the teleplay (based upon Jeff Rice's unpublished novel) for the original THE NIGHT STALKER TV movie (which at the time was the highest-rated TV movie ever broadcast) which set up the sequel TV movie and then the TV series. Everything in this Smith version of I AM LEGEND is a slap in the face of the source material along with just plain pissing on one of the greatest contemporary horror genre writers that is still working today. Roger Ebert is quoted about Matheson's scientific approach to the supernatural in "I Am Legend" and other novels from the 1950s and early 1960s "anticipated pseudorealistic fantasy novels like Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist." Folks, we wouldn't have "genre geeks" today and sites like AIN'T IT COOL NEWS without a guy like Matheson paving the way. Matheson and his original story deserved better than this Hollywood piece of crap being fostered upon the public.
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Guess I should have known the ending was gonna be total dogshit. Thats Hollywood for you.
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i was planning on checking it out anyhow. thanks though.
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That was exactly my point. They're essentially lying to the people that have read the book to get them into the theaters.
I highly recommend reading the book. It's not very long either. -
Something I just thought about, the trap was plainly fully exposed to sunlight unlike the other one we clearly saw Neville set. Unless Neville was planning to go out at night to cut down whatever he caught (which he clearly wasn't given what was going on), it would seem likely the others set it; as anything caught would have been burnt to a crisp once the sun came up.
Mind you, the fact there's not really a lot to suggest the dark seekers have much intelligence or if they do, it's not really explored at all, as many people have said already. -
would have been burnt to a crisp. Not an issue in itself for Neville of course ...
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Dec 16, 2007 5:38:33 PM CST
Excellent performance RUINED by typical Hllywd CRAP, i.e. the cr
by behemoth
The "creatures" in this movie utterly ruined it for me. There were pacing problems, too, but that's for another post. But these CGI f-tards were an absolute contrived, cliched abomination to what could have been an excellent film.
Once again, the audience is treated like morons.
So let me get this straight.
These "infected" are basically rabid humans, yet they have somehow developed superhuman speed, super strength, and some are truly cut full of muscle, and they have developed the ability to roar like ten mountain lions (of course, after all, being rabid and malnourished leads to all these things.)
These idiot CGI creations basically look like the robots from I-ROBOT turned zombie. It's pathetic. Not scary at all, to be honest. Certainly not when you realize how utterly stupid this is.
And WHY are they feeding on people (which we never see)? Why is it they want blood (which we are never told)? It's absolute crap.
Oh, and of course one of them, in his rabid and insane state, somehow finds the time to calm down, learn how to set an elaborate trap, train equally rabid f-ing dogs and figures out how to communicate with his fellow spawn and get them to set up covert operations as they follow Will Smith. Absolutely absurd and insulting.
I will, howver, give props to Will Smith. He plays this one pretty much like he should: straight and dark. The scene where he pleads with a mannequin was actually very moving.
And that's just it - what could have been a very HUMAN movie was ruined once again by idiots who took the soul out of the film by these CGI dopes. Just a terrible, terrible decision.
THis is why Omega Man was a much better film. The "creatures" could reason, they weren't rabid. They'd formed a sort of religious cult. It made sense. I never read the book, so I don't know how different any of these films are to it, but I can't imagine the author imagined a horde of these stupid animated dregs.
Enough with the whole "infected" premise at this point. This film is proof positive that it's become a tired concept that needs a break. -
Vern, it takes a lot of nerve (actually none at all) to come on an internet message board and tell everyone who disagrees with your precious opinion that they are wrong and simply can't tell the difference between the shit that Hollywood shovels, and the glory that is "I Am Legend". In case you didn't notice, the last third of this movie is exactly the kind of shit that Hollywood shovels. And unfortunately a judgment of the movie has to take the last third of it into consideration. What could be more Hollywood, in the worst sense of the word, than the ending of this movie? It's almost plays as a parody of how a studio would fuck up brilliant source material. So skip the lectures. I don't need lessons in film criticism from one of the regulars on AICN. When a movie's final third is lifted from another movie (Signs) and cynically exploits religious devotion, to come up with an all too easy "God told me it was all going to be OK" ending that contains a self indulgent monologue about Bob Marley that is more enlightening in regards to the power a movie star has to impose his own personal obsessions on a movie than it is about the character he is playing, and which perverts the intention of its source material, well, that's what bums me out. Not the negativity that it provokes.
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I have never seen us geeks so divided on a movie. Some love it, some thinks it's the worst thing since Ishtar, while others simply liked it. I mean it's like a geek Civil War out there.
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"You're fired" is the key phrase at New Line: a pity COMPASS' failure has handicapped the Holidays for company brass (it pretty much vanished during its second week). As for "I Am Legend": the book is killer (one of the best set pieces is the hero routinely setting his watch before retreating to his home by twilight; upon waking from a much deserved nap, he realizes that his watch has stopped--and he's a long way from home). Matheson's book, in my humble opinion, is the best of its genre (kicks Stoker's ass). One of its merits is that the hero is entirely vulnerable, he's an average guy scrambling for survival (which is why Heston didn't work for me in OMEGA MAN; the guy is fearless and loaded to the teeth with ammo. Arnold Schwarzenegger, proposed for the remake, would have been a disaster in the role). I thought LAST MAN ON EARTH, w/ Vincent Price, was an infinitely better adaptation (even the book's passages about the hero, watching home movies during his solitude, was retained). I look forward to screening the Smith movie though it appears this adaptation does not strictly adhere to Matheson's work. It's unlikely another remake won't be negotiated until most of us are 50-60 yrs. old. Anyway, I'm elated over the film's $70+ million gross; horror/sci-fi have been dying at the boxoffice (because the movies have been shit). But ALVIN earned $45 million? Families are deperate for a Christmas movie.
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this movie wasnt awful, but i just wish it stayed true to the book! the ending was pretty lame... and the creatures looked like shit. theres nothing i hate more than overuse of cgi. they could have used make up on human actors for a lot of that, maybe head replacement for when they scream, would have been a lot scarier because it would have felt more real. oh well.
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It seems a compare and contrast between a topical new big budget release and an obvious shameless knockoff (of the the earlier films) would be timely. Especially since some people seem to be saying that it's not actually that bad.
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A lot of talk about an alternate (original) ending, for which a scene in the trailer lends credence to, right at the end where one of the dark seekers is literally inches away from Neville, a scene we never see in the movie. Strongly suggestive of footage in an alternate ending that was reshot.
Anyone know more? -
Will Smith was quite good - and I was one of the skeptics who thought he was all wrong for Neville. Unfortunately, the movie that surrounds him isn't quite as good (at least if you're a fan of the novel). Some of the early scenes were effective in conveying his isolation, but the film's first fatal mistake was making the "dark seekers" developmentally challenged hooligans. Those waiting for something akin to the classic "Come out Neville!" scene from the book will be sorely disappointed as a result. And the ending, especially the voice-over, totally distorts the book's meaning (and title). Another lost opportunity.
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You are right, people are clearly divided. But it sounds to me like a lot of these folks went in expecting to hate it. I went in with no expectations, not having read the book or seen either of the other movies. I can't say I enjoyed it because I don't know how you can "enjoy" a movie that's so bleak. But I did enjoy Will Smith's performance, as he didn't play "himself" like he does in a lot of films, and it still has the family and I talking about it a day later. So, I guess I can say I enjoyed it from that aspect. It does make me want to go read the book. I have to agree with some folks that the ending felt more like a typical Hollywood blockbuster, which was a disappointment after the character development in the first third. I wish they would have made a longer movie and told some more of the story, like what happened when he realized that he was the last man standing, more about how the virus developed, more about the infected humans, etc. The movie was only 1:40, which seems really short by today's standards. They could have put in at least another 45 minutes to tell more of the story.
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I'll be spending my money elsewhere.
No I don't have to give it a chance, I read the script and the script was appalling but more then just that, it was insulting.. Also I think my argument stands, if they made Lord of the Rings as a different but "equal" movie then fans would have had a shit-fit. SO BLAH. That $10.00 ($20.00 actually since my girlfriend doesn't want to see it either) can stay comfortably in my wallet. -
I'm still shaking my head about the ending. Everyone I was with concurred. Great start, good Will Smith, *unbelievably* bad finish.
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I did not read the book. I'm assuming the title actually means something to the story in the book. In this film, the title had nothing to do with this film save for a forced line at the end.
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But it made it's way to the bank! 76 million opening week. Go Will!
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It debuted with $76.5 million. Here's a link:
http://tinyurl.com/ywd gmpEvidently, from a business perspective, Will Smith clearly knows how to pick his projects.
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I agree with your defenses...because it was a great film...I just felt the end was inexcusable.
Seriously...picture yourself in Will Smith's Scenario. You would be freaked out like crazy. All you would want to do, is make sure that you are protected at night. Why the hell didn't he have UV lites all throughout the house and in every room? That should have been his liting at night. The Vampires wouldn't have been able to get near him. He could have had UV lites everywhere. To me, that is a scene that doesn't respect our intelligence. -
Dec 16, 2007 10:44:51 PM CST
IALINO - Still waiting for a decent translation of the book
by miyamoto_musashi
Though I think I will be waiting for forever, the story in the book as many of you have mentioned is not well suited to a big blockbuster type film, its a gripping pscholigical story that examines human nature as its core theme.
Will Smith was very good, but again as many have mentioned the CGI was terrible (it's been 14 years since Jurassic Park and for photo-realistic humanoids we clearly have a long way to go), the story unfortunately in the end turns out to be your standard "hollywood" fare.
So dreaming here, but hopefully it can be made properly one day as a smaller film, no CGI required, I vote for del Toro to direct, and Guy Pearce to star -
they just got donw telling us that the "things" had lost all vestiges of humanity. that would include setting traps, would it not? let's face it,
Neville was starting to lose it, and he forgot about a trap he had set a while back. I can't believe that something that thinks head butting is the best way to gain access somewhere is going to be able to construct a complex and fairly sophisticated trap like that. the fact that his beginning to lose it, and making a dumb mistake, caused him to lose his dog, is in my mind, a huge part of his motivation. not a single person I saw the movie with thought that the trap was set by the naked drooling animal infected things. -
I guess maybe my biggest disagreement with some of the book fundamentalists here is that I hardly think the ending of the book is "the whole point." It's a cool ironic twist. It would've been cool if they figured out a way to do that in movie form, but how? Would you have had Will Smith narrating "Full circle. A new terror born in death, a new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever. I am legend"? Because I don't think that would work. I like what somebody said about showing more with the cured vampire and having the other vampires fear him, but without saying it I don't think most people would pick up on why he is legend.
I do think the very end could've been better, but I don't agree that it was some kind of disaster. With the heart attacks this thing is giving some of you guys I'm not sure how you've survived all these years of the other two versions existing. Should they have just had him do a Christ pose and get impaled on a spear again?
Some of you said LAST MAN ON EARTH was a faithful adaptation, and yet Matheson disliked it so much he had himself credited under a pseudonym. It's a fun movie but I can't imagine preferring it to this new version. I'm a much bigger fan of Vincent Price than of Will Smith, but Smith is clearly the more believable Neville and the one with more depth. His relationship with his dog and his separation from his family make the movie way more effective and human than either of the other versions.
As for I AM OMEGA, I kind of want to watch it just for Mark Dacascos. I might do that, thanks for the suggestion. -
I've seen the Vincent Price version, which is basically an extended Twilight Zone episode, and the Charlton Heston version, which is the funky, blaxploitation version, and I have to say, I liked this version the best of the three. And to those critics who say they have difficulty believing Will Smith as a soldier/scientist, I can only say: racist! (what you can believe Charlie Heston is a soldier/scientist, but not Big Willie? Go put on your white robes, Grand Wizard!) I really think it may be one of Will Smith's best acting performances. He's really low-key and I thought very believable as an extremely sad and lonely man who's convinced that he'll never see another human being again. The CGI wasn't as bad as I'd feared or been led to believe and there was genuine high-tension when Neville goes into the building to find his dog. That scene goes down like the end of Silence of the Lambs, when Clarice is in the basement with Buffalo Bill, only it's longer and scarier. I won't go into spoilers about the film here, but I think it's a nice hybrid movie: a small film about a lonely man and his dog and a tight action/horror film. For me, it worked. (btw, I saw it in IMAX and it looked great! And Dark Knight looks SO FUCKING GOOD! That robbery scene is AWESOME in IMAX. You can really tell the difference in the way it looks versus the usual film to IMAX transfer. I'm so excited to see it!)
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I look forward to your review (if you do one), especially if compared to "I am Legend". Sometimes you don't need a lot of money to pull of an entertaining film. Mark Dacascos certainly can bring something to a picture especially if it already had some effort taken (ie Brotherhood of the Wolf).
I believe the director of the film is also occasionally posting comments on the message board at imdb. -
That scene in the trailer with Neville seemingly surrounded by the DS, and one looks like it's going to swallow his head wasn't in there, and one angle of the bridge being shot down with missles, the money shot, wasn't in there. (or was I just too stoned and missed it?) Anything else? Oh and I think the lead DS wanted Neville so bad because Neville stole his "Woman", the cured DS at the end. (Remember Neville was so shocked by the fact that he tried to go into the sun to retrieve her and got severely burned. He was pissed off and wanted his bitch back!) I was almost expecting Neville to roll out the cured female DS and then the others would reject her and/or feed on her. Maybe they cut that out...? Oh and I think the creatures set the trap that snared Neville. The mannequin, which we saw elsewhere in the city, was definitely set as bait by the DS. And how would Neville get fooled by his own trap? I mean, he was a little wonky, but he was still a soldier and a scientist, so he didn't just forget about a trap he set himself. It was perfect bait for the last guy on Earth, make it seem so crazy, "the mannequin moved", that it would really freak his shit and sucker him into the trap...
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Just imagine: Smith and the far supperior Mark Protosevich script, With the vampire-leader Ben Cortman, etc. All the best parts in the current movies (except the "Who moved Fred?" scene) are from THAT script. Al the lame ones, including de awfull ending, are from the lesser Akiva Goldsman script.
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Dec 17, 2007 2:05:55 AM CST
I mean "... in the current MOVIE" & "including THE awful ending"
by the_hypnotoad
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Well, I like your interpretation and I like that it works either way, but I'm pretty sure my way is the way it was intended. Neville is surprised when that guy comes out into the sun trying to save the female he snatched. He says in his log that their behavior is changing. Then his mannequin is moved and the vampire happens to be waiting there with his infected dogs?
The fact that the trap uses the weight of the car as a pulley like Neville's trap did could show that it is his trap. But I think more likely it shows that either the vampire has copied his trap, or (maybe even better) that the vampire is deliberately fucking with him by using his methods against him. You did this to my girl, I am doing it to you. You have your dog, I have mine.
I believe that either the vampires are beginning to evolve LAND OF THE DEAD style and turning into the society that they were in the book, or maybe even that they have been like this all along and Neville just hasn't figured it out yet because he sees them more as monsters than as people. -
Dec 17, 2007 6:46:10 AM CST
I wonder if Target still has Last Man on Earth
by grammaton cleric binks
on sale in their $1 bins or if all the geeks have bought them up by now.
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... as it's now a public domain film. There's a number of public domain films available there.
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"Oh and I think the lead DS wanted Neville so bad because Neville stole his "Woman", the cured DS at the end. (Remember Neville was so shocked by the fact that he tried to go into the sun to retrieve her and got severely burned. He was pissed off and wanted his bitch back!)" Neville got that wrong, he thought they had devolved, and had no sense of society or humanity. I was waiting for his oh crap I was wrong revelation. I didn't get it, but it didn't break the movie for me. I just thought it would be in there.
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I agree to disagree. I think you missed the point of the book, and it's not just the ending I'm talking about. I wouldn't care if they 'modernized' it; I mean certain things just don't work on film. I get that. But if you change the core idea of the story, then it's not really the same story. Clearly we have different ideas about what Matheson was trying to convey in the book. To each his own.
As for the movie, I did like it for what it was--an Omega man remake. That's really what it was. -
You may not recall because it was the late fifties, but there was a "Last man on Earth" movie that starred Harry Belafonte callled The World the Flesh & the Devil.
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Thanks for the review, Capone. I pretty much agree with you: it was a big budget arthouse flick with a lot of humanity and back-against-the-wall tension. I wasn't expecting to like it much, but Smith's performance carried the story. Turned out to be a solidly gripping film.
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Because they just won't get it any other way.
Onion soup is also fine with toasted wonder-bread and $.50 Mozzarella.
Enjoy. -
I wanted some acknowledgement too, because I actually thought it was pretty cool that they depicted Neville as so committed to his vision of the infected as mindless monsters that even when he saw one act in a way that showed concern for his "mate", he literally couldn't see the correct interpretation, but found a way to see it as another devolution. ["They don't even act in self-preservation any more!"] I guess that's why the world's greatest scientist didn't recognize the mannequin trap - he was completely emotionally committed to a view of the infected that would make such a trap impossible. // With regard to the Vincent Price version, I'd like to understand Matheson's opposition a little better. It's much, much more like the book than the other two versions. For most of the length of it, it's a beat by beat match of the plot points in the book. The ending isn't exact, but it's a lot closer than the other two. Maybe when Matheson was younger he was just less tolerant of deviations from his work, and now that he's been screwed a few times he just takes what he can get?
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Children of Men and Signs. Our hero has lost his faith in the face of great tragedy. Yeah I guess you can an add Castaway to the list too. Another great performance from Smith. How it took him awhile to process that there were other humans around was great. Having to kill Sam was fucked. Great film don't know where all the hate is coming from. maybe some of you should go get the Marley CD. Bob not Damian.
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But i gives a damn.
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I think your observation regarding the new vampire society is correct. I just think that the movie could have shown it more so we got the feeling that they were evolving into a society--not just just random acts of intelligence by one vampire.
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what and why he was emptying that bottle on his steps?
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Yep, Hammer Films (the Brit company that paired Peter Cushing & Chris Lee for some Grand Guignol classics) greenlit production of "I Am Legend"; however, upon reading the script, British censors nixed the whole thing. Apparently, the civic watchdogs were pissed over the "violent" content. In retrospect, Cushing would have been the perfect "Neville" (a match for Matheson's description of the hero).
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It looked to me like the bottle was bleach. The monsters could smell your trail, so he covered the smell trail in front of his house. I also noticed that when he went exploring and found the apartment where it looked like someone had survived for a while, there were empty bleach bottles all over. It was probably one of the public service announcements near the end.
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Thank's.
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Seriously. I'm not ragging on the guy here. Apparently, way back when he was just starting out as an actor, he and his manager looked at the top ten grossing films of all time and realized half of them had serious SFX. So, Will makes Independence Day, MIB, WWW. Pretty savvy, really...
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should not have been dignified with an answer. It was nice of FluffyUnbound to help, but is it me, or was the answer obvious. Granted there were subtleties in the movie, but I thought the reason for the bottle was a no-brainer.
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forced ending which equally tried to force the audience. good have been relatively good had they ditched the CGI in favour of practical, but all in all a fairly forgettable movie.
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Plot holes after plot holes after plot holes. Why didn't the vampires come out after the vampire dogs? Just how many scientists out there does Neville think there are who can take his antidote and make it into a vaccine? There were moments like this one after another. Personally, those awful 3d vampires looked crappy and I much prefer the other versions where they had intelligence and spookily goaded over and over: "Neville! Come out, Neville!" This movie was bad. But it had Will Smith starring in it and acting his "Aw HELL NO!" crap that he always does and people flock to see it.
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Riskebiz, Will Smith DID NOT act the "Aw HELL NO!" crap in this film. I'm as sensitive to that Big Willy attitude as anyone, but I think you're dead wrong in your assessment. When did he even come close to "Aw HELL NO!" in this movie?
You're grasping at straws. -
I think if it was the infected that made that trap, it was fairly poorly brought across. considering they are too dumb to solve basic problems (like finding some UV resistant clothing? constructing awnings? etc.) but smart enough to construct a very sophisticated trap like that.but I admit, I remember thinking when you saw the main baddie release the dogs, that that was a pretty "human" action. I just don't see why they had to have Neville specifically say "all vestiges of human behavior are completely gone". or did they mean for him to be proven painfully incorrect? or was he talking more about human EMOTIVE behavior, and they just sort of wrote it ambiguously.I feel like the majority of the movie was trying hard, and very successfully, to create this specific mood. this loneliness and obsession on the part of Neville. and then the tidy and rushed wrapup felt to me like the studio going, "we got 2 hours of a guy and his dog? we need to make a MOVIE out of this" queue the chick, the kid, the explosion, the happy ending. it was frustrating, because 4/5 of it was this perfectly constructed FEELING, and the fact that there were ambiguities, surprises, it was all welcome. but Hollywood is only 4/5 ready for a movie like that, it seems. it's fun to see them try though. like a crackhead with a week's sobriety. you shake his hand, but you still ain't givin' him any money, you know?
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WONKA: Fair enough. I didn't have a problem with his finding other people, since that's part of the story in the book and both other movies. But I agree that the end is not as well constructed or daring as the rest of the movie. (I wonder how different it was before the reshoots?)
RISKE: I think you might be thinking of MEN IN BLACK. Will Smith's performance in this one is more like PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS. If you did in fact see I AM LEGEND but just weren't paying attention to the performance, your examples of "plot holes" are still pretty weak. If I understand what you're asking about the dogs, the answer is that the infected dogs can come out at dusk, but the infected humans can't come out until it is fully dark. I like how that was explained by a headline on the wall in one of the apartments he scavenged instead of having to state it in dialogue. I don't really get your question about the vaccine either. Of course he doesn't think there are scientists who can help him, he thinks he's the last person alive. But he's gonna do what he can do. Are you saying it would be better if he decided it was too difficult and gave up? I don't know bud, if I considered shit like that to be "plot holes" I think I would just stop watching movies, because nothing's gonna cut it.
Here's another good one for you. Why does he wear pants? There's no other people, so why does he care about covering his junk? PLOT HOLE! -
Clothes also serve as a form of protection from the hostile environment such as extreme heat and cold. So I think that's a good enough reason to wear them.
Force of habit's probably another one - I mean, don't most people close the door to the bathroom even when they know there's no-one in the house? -
What I liked about the book and the previous movies was that his house was a fortress which repulsed multiple attacks.
Here, he'd obviously spent some time setting up defences for his house but during the first attack where they got in, internal security was woefully inadequate. I would have liked the film more if they showed him repulsing a number of attacks and they showed he had all sorts of clever ways to defend the inside.
As for the other thing about the ending, it really did seem that from the moment he went from his truck to waking up on the couch, it was like they'd lopped the original end of the film off and added a new end; which didn't fit at all with the rest of the film and I thought was *so* *so* poorly done .... (as others were saying).
The final line of dialogue which seemed to try and explain the relevance of the title just seemed most symptomatic of that, as it sounded so forced and didn't work at all IMO. -
as opposed to the original end of the book.
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i thought it was very good....cgi wasnt bad....ive seen worse...cough cough spider man, cough, 3, cough...and leave it to one loser to bring up transformers almost 6 months later....get over it. i never read the book either, and even if i had i wouldnt compare the two...or even compare the prior movies....i think smith is an excellent actor and rarely picks a bad script....and really i thought i-robot was excellent...even hitch, a possible stinker was pretty good...but this movie was great...scary in the right places..sad in the right places....the brief humor even fit...when hes screamin at the mannequin "what are u doing out here ?!!!" like its a real person...really sad when his dog is turning and he has to smother or strangle her, and her fur is coming off....and then to see how the dog was really the last thing keeping him sane and how he went off the deep end.. im glad they showed him blowing himself up and alot of the vampires to make sure that the girl and the kid and the blood got away safely...im sure there are some MIST haters out there that would say theyd rather see him running with the grenade and u never see what happens...lol....they need hope dont ya know......one thing that was on my mind, and maybe its just me...what are the odds that the goverment scientist working to cure the plague in nyc is the only one thats immune to it....and nyc is "ground zero" i found it odd that during some of the newscasts they showed in flashbacks that they mention nevilles name so prominently too....and i got the original premise that hes immune so hes trying to reverse engineer his immunity into a cure, but i kept thinking ..is it possible that his blood was the original sample used to engineer the K virus....i may be nuts but who knows
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Seems to me he wasn't hunting the deer for food, but for sport (like chipping the golf balls of the wing of the jet fighter). He obviously had food- (and plenty of meat too- bacon, Spam etc.)And you never saw him gutting a deer or having any remnants (antlers etc.) around his house. Most glaringly NO DEER MEAT (in his freezer or being eaten by him or his dog)!!!! So IMO he was just chasing/hunting the deer for fun! I'm surprised no one else has caught this...... the deer were target practice.
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Went into this movie with pretty low expectations & was surprised. It sucked so much worse than I could ever have imagined. Lots of "set pieces"/scenes someone thought would look cool but it never jelled into a coherent movie. Too many plot holes to be mentioned and just plain stupid dialog. Overall not even woth recommending on DVD.
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Hey TomBodet I'd watch your mouth. I'm from Bethel. Don't be jealous cause you all would be dead and we'd be living up here happy in out little town!
Pretty good movie overall, kind of a crappy ending. -
Just saw the movie. I read the book. By changing the ending, it's not I AM LEGEND. It's Will Smith in 28 Days Later. The point is mankind's time is over. The society of infected/half-vampires becomes the new human race and Neville fades into "legend" as the last man/monster of nightmares. If you do not understand & believe the ending doesn't work in the book and cannot be achieved cinematically that it just shows they didn't find the right writer for the film. Look at the powerful impact the ending of the original Planet of the Apes had. That was different from that book but it captured the IDEA. I agree with many here that this film needed a different title. I like it but not as I AM LEGEND.
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I know now that the person responsible for "Batman & Robin" has provided absolute proof that Hollywood scriptwriters COMPLETELY MISS THE POINT of novels they're adapting.
Neville is the last man on Earth in the book. He's NOT in the movie. He's supposed to be a monster to the vampires, and in here they build up to it, do plenty of foreshadowing, and then just DROP THAT PLOT POINT ENTIRELY in favor of some "god is still here" message, which was the EXACT OPPOSITE of what Matheson was trying to convey.
Up until the last 1/3 of the movie, everything was pointing toward a somewhat loyal ending, and then this piece of shit, find-the-colony, God/Bob Marley, Martyrdom ending comes out of left field with NO build-up, NO foreshadowing, and NO reason to exist other than the deny the original ending's "bleakness" in favor of some sort of shovel-sunshine-up-your-asshole way.
FUCK Akiva, FUCK Will (if he had anything to do with these changes), and FUCK everyone who decided that the audience was too dumb to handle the proper ending to this brilliant story. If I'd wanted to watch the ending to 28 Days Later or Stephen King's The Stand, I'd have RENTED THEM.
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