*** Official I AM LEGEND Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Patrick Sun]

I was too grossed out to look any further...

 

[Will_B]

I saw the film without preconceptions. I knew it involved vampires and that Will Smith was the last survivor in New York. I enjoyed the film but felt it shortchanged an excellent set-up by making the last third of the film pretty much just another zombie attack.

From what I've read here in this thread, the film could have been fantastic if it had followed the dramatic turns of the book, including the woman being a spy and the turnabout where Will Smith's character is seen as a boogie-man to the new (twisted) culture.

Now the book is sort of ruined now that there's maybe half of the book up on the screen (but not the best bits). It won't get a proper film adaptation now that this one did half of it.

I will be curious to see alternate endings on the DVD, if there are indeed some -- but it needed more than a different ending, it needed a more unique middle too and that would have been from the woman being a spy. Or from the medicated zombie waking up and remembering who she was, and having to choose sides. Opportunities not taken.

 

[Holadem]

I never read the book, yet I fully expected Ana to be "bad". Just goes to show that the dramatic turns of the book wouldn't have been as unpredictable as some might think. When a woman shows up out of nowhere like that, she is usually not good news...

Some times in a not so great film, we tend to forget it could have been much worse. Much of my big Hollywood film screenings nowadays consist in waiting for standard plot development and devices and being somewhat pleasantly surprised when they don't show up (like attraction/love/sex between Neville and Ana).

But then again, Ana's rather ordinary looks (by Hollywood standard) should been a dead giveaway that she was intended as neither a temptress nor a love interest.

The film was OK, mostly for the premise, setting and perhaps acting.

--
H

 

[DavidPla]

The Alternate Ending is online (the one that'll be on the upcoming DVD). While still not the book ending, it seems to be more in spirit of it. Check it out.

UPDATED!! The Original Ending To I AM LEGEND is online - and is vastly superior to the theatrical ending... -- Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news.

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

I thought the alternate ending was better than what I saw in the theater although what's the deal with the vehicle driving across the bridge? I though all the bridges had been bombed? I still think an ending more faithful to the book's would have been superior.

 

[Will_B]

Yup I like that "alternate" ending better, and it surely is the original ending and the theatrical ending is just a studio-dictated revision.

Maybe I can figure out how to edit that ending onto the end... either that or I'll wait for a director's cut, assuming the director likes the more meaningful ending best.

 

[Lucia Duran]

Wow that ending is far superior to the one we saw in theaters. Hmmm.... why does hollywood do this to us?

 

[Kachi Khatri]

Will Smith was great, he can certainly act when the script requires. However as for the movie I thought it was ok, mainly due the the 3rd act of the film, which I felt was a downer.

I agree with others who have posted that it could have been fleshed out more and had the ending been closer to the source material.

 

[Don Solosan]

"Now the book is sort of ruined now"

This is the third time the book has been adapted for the screen with these types of responses, so it's probably far from being "ruined."

 

[Will_B]

I didn't see the first two versions of "I Am Legend". Are you sure?

 

[Don Solosan]

Personally, I like The Omega Man. Childhood favorite, and all that. But if you go on IMDB and read the comments, you'll see complaints that are similar to the ones about I Am Legend, and The Last Man On Earth, about diverging from the novel, etc. A lot of people seem to think that a movie that was extremely faithful to the book would be fantastic. I'm not a big fan of the book, so I would disagree. In any case, the book still exists for people to discover and enjoy, so you see, I'm pretty sure it's not "ruined."

 

[Jesse Blough]

I'm disappointed.

First what I like:

Will Smith is great. I like the look of the city.

What I don't like:

A lot of the movie didn't make sense to me. How can an adult not know who Bob Marley is? I actually got mad at her, heh. A lot of other stuff like why was he driving around in the car to hunt deer.... He couldn't walk at all with the knife in his leg yet suddenly he can carry his dog... The infected release the dogs on him yet after they get killed and he's injured they don't chase after him. During the ending why didn't he just throw the grenade and escape with them. I'm not sure why he felt he had to blow himself up... And etc. Also the terrible CGI, the Shrek commercial in the middle of the movie... The horrible ending.



I really wanted to like this movie but I just can't.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

The only major problem I had with the alternate ending is that it required the bad CGI to act more which kept calling attention to the film's visually weakest link. I do not think it captured the spirit of the novel any better than the widely released theatrical ending, but it was definitely the ending that was being foreshadowed by the rest of the film. Without getting spoilery, the whole episode where Neville's leg is injured and the bit with the dark seeker who almost overcomes his instincts and moves into the sunlight to pursue him were definitely pointing to the alternate ending moreso than the one that played in theaters.

Regards,

 

[EricW]

just watched it. okay movie, although i really didn't like the trapping-Will-Smith scene. not the scene itself, but the possibilities that it opened up but didn't follow through with. if you're not going to follow through with it, don't put it there in the first place.
i realize that somehow, the dog had to die. it could have just as easily been engine trouble or a blown tire that flipped a car and knocked him unconcious until early-dusk. then the monsters come out and you-know-what. the reveal at the ending where Neville realizes the Dark Seeker had feelings for the girl would have been just as good if not better.
there's a big leap in terms of mental capacity between showing feelings for another member of your species (apes and chimps due that) and rigging traps.

 

[Nelson Au]

I also just saw this on DVD. As a film, it was okay, it felt like a note for note remake of Omega Man. Everything was there in terms of window dressing that was in the Heston version, going building to building to check for stuff. Some psychological coo-coo stuff from the isolation, driving around the city with wild abandon in a Mustang, canned food, watching TV recordings of broadcasts about the disaster and the fortress that was his house. Though there was no social commentary on this one, well, maybe there was with the Bob Marley sequence.

I saw the theatrical version first, and towards the end, I figured that the Alpha male wanted the girl back. And the vampires had the intellegence to set a trap for him. I liked that they were not mindless monsters. As was Matthias was in the Omega Man, thinking creatures. Then I saw the alternate ending version and realized they were going for that at some point. I liked it better. The theatrical version was very Heston like for the hero to die. I guess with Neville living at the end, it was a more happy ending. I wonder why they had two such diverging endings. The alternate version was better, the Vampires still had some humanity left in them.

I've got to read the book and find the Vincent Price version on DVD!

I kept wondering while watching the film, what if George Clooney or Clive Owen had the title role? I felt like he might have had more gravitas to add to the character and if the story had followed the book more closely, if these 2 things would have lifted it. As I said, I must read the book to know what I am talking about.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

The alternate ending was so much better than the theatrical one (although the DVD lists it as an "alternate theatrical ending" which makes no sense at all, if that's not the ending shown in theaters than the alternate cannot be called the theatrical version).

It gave more depth to the dark seekers and showed us that they do still have emotions and at least SOME humanity left in them.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

The alternate ending is also truer to the book in this respect: After Neville releases the girl to the Dark Seeker he glances at the wall of the multitude of test subjects he has ... well, basically killed. It's a moment of realization that perhaps HE is now the real monster, the killer, and it's the moment where he abandons his research and is free to go. Course, in the book he dies, but at least in this version he comes to realize the infected no longer want to be "saved" and are now the norm, and HE is the freak.

I don't know why they released that very week ending for the theatrical version where they just had to blow everyone up. You get the feeling that they were trying to go more after a "28 Days Later" ending than one that was true to this story.

 

[Van594]

I watched the alternate ending last night and have to say I liked it better. It made more sense with events that happened earlier in the movie. So in that way it felt like a better fit.

I think it did show the infected had more humanity but I don't know if it really made Neville into the monster. let's face it...he was trying to cure them and I can't believe that their life span will be all that long without his help. Not to mention their so called humanity had no problem ripping to pieces all the other survivors up until that point. The infected weren't exactly innocent either. Maybe thats why they let Neville and the other two live.

The funny thing is when I first saw this in the theatre and the girl and boy came into the story I was a little uneasy because I read the book. So in that way it worked for me...in the back of my mind I was thinking she might be one of them.

On the Bob Marley comment...heck I'm 43 and I barely remember him. Just the other day I was talking to this 20 something woman in our office and She just looked puzzled when I mentioned Eddie Money. It made sense she wouldn't have heard of him at her age.

Anyways, good movie but with flaws. I can't fault Will Smith on this one...he did a great job. Bad choice for the CGI and a few things should have been fleshed out more.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

By "monster" I mean't the "bad guy" or the "killer." An unclear choice of terms on my part, sorry about that. I just meant he realizes HE'S now the bad guy in the new world order of 540 million "light-challenged" inhabitants.

 

[Van594]

I kind of knew what you ment...maybe I didn't say it right. Yes...in their eyes he is the monster only because they are like you say the world order now. There are too many of them now to ever turn the tide back even with a cure. I think he realized they weren't excactly open to discussion at this point about being helped.