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Badmovies.org Forum  |  Movies  |  Good Movies  |  I Am Legend... « previous next »
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Author Topic: I Am Legend...  (Read 31386 times)
Nev
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« Reply #30 on: December 19, 2007, 10:48:20 AM »

I posted a review at StompTokyo for this.

Honestly, I thought Will Smith's performance was good, and the first 2/3s of the movie excellant, (Although the Vampires, Dark Seekers in the movie, do look awful, compare them to the Crawlers in The Descent to get a idea of what they should have done.)  Its the final act that falls apart.

http://badmoviezone.com/cgi-bin/ib3/ikonboard.cgi?s=f4f10e06bad971443b8879fec9eb723b;act=ST;f=5;t=11346;st=0


i agree i was kindof surprised at will smith's acting the first hour of the film.  i thought it was good and then.....

the movie just tanked into 28 days later-esque crap.
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« Reply #31 on: January 01, 2008, 05:13:26 PM »

I just saw the movie. I don't think I've ever been so disappointed in my life. Bluesad
I mean, I Am Legend is one of the greatest books I've ever read. I knew, judging from the trailers, that the movie wouldn't be totally faithful to the source material, but hey, I was cool with that. War of the Worlds (2005) took a ton of liberties with the book, and it was still a great movie. Just so long as it retained the point of the book, I would be satisfied.
The movie doesn't even get that right.
***WARNING: HERE BE SPOILERS***
At the end of the book, it is revealed that some of the "vampires" Robert Neville was slaying were actually normal people (or, at least, as close to normal as they were ever going to get) Yes, they were infected, but they managed to stave off the worst of the symptoms (such as psychosis) through artificial means. To them, Robert was a monster, a creature who could walk in sunlight and kill unsuspecting "people" as they hibernated during the day. The theme of the book can basically be summed up like this...
"We're not the monsters, you are."
In the movie, however, the "Dark Seekers" are just your average pseudo-zombie monsters with no conscience whatsoever. Instead of "I am Legend," the movie becomes "WILL SMITH VS. TEH VAMPIRES!!!!111" Thus, the entire point, the lesson, the soul of the novel is completely missed by a mile.
On its own merits (i.e., not being compared to the book) the movie is like a roller coaster. There are some high points,(the death of Neville's dog actually elicited some emotion from me) and a lot of low ones (there are a lot, and I mean a lot of scenes where, literally, nothing happens. It doesn't escalate the tension, it's just boring.). Futhermore, the CGI left a lot to be desired. In fact, if you look hard enough at the crowds of Dark Seekers, you'll see that a few of them look exactly the same. I don't mean due to the effects of the disease, I mean they are wearing the same freaking shirts, torn in the same freaking places. In a video game, this would be okay. In a movie, it's borderline unacceptable. (forget that, it's just plain unaccceptable)
Is it really that hard to put some people in pale makeup, fake blood and fangs, and set them loose in the streets?
The movie is partially redeemed by a few well done scenes, but it's not enough to save the movie from... a 2.5 out of 5.
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« Reply #32 on: January 01, 2008, 05:17:37 PM »

Spoilers continue.

The Vincent Price version, "The Last Man On Earth," does a marvelous job of preserving the twist.  Price does an excellent job of conveying his horror at killing the innocent, thus becoming the monster - their monster.  We also get a feeling for a lost opportunity, because he performed a transfusion (using his own blood) to cure the one girl of the disease.
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« Reply #33 on: January 01, 2008, 08:31:13 PM »

Saw it a week ago, I liked it for the first 2/3 until the woman and the kid appeared, I thought they were going to stick to the original ending from the book until part way through her time there. It would have been too much of a leap from the Dark Seekers to her, so I figured they weren't going to stick to the original ending at that point for sure. There were some holes later on that bothered me, especially when I thought about it more. And the deus ex machina ending was a bit much for me as well.

The Dark Seekers (and the CGI animals) were too fake looking and it was too hard to tell them apart or see that even they saw each other as individuals. On another board they were discussing that the female SMith captured was supposed to be the mate of the pack leader, I had trouble seeing this since to me the movie just made it seem like until near the end it was just mad that he had captured one of their group.

While I could buy they were adapting it seemed a bit much to think they could copy his own trap and use it against him when they seemed to have little else other than numbers and a pack mentality. I fault the screenwriters for not fleshing them out more.

I thought Smith was much better than he is most films, actually acting and getting some real worn down emotion out of a man who was truly alone and trying to stay mostly sane. Plus he managed to come off as the right mix of bitter and clincal when doing his tests on the rats and the Dark Seeker. I wish he'd go down this path more as an actor, less of the Smithisms and movie star cliches, and avoid manipulative crap like The Pursuit of Happyness altogether, ( I couldn't even finish watching that movie).

I recommended it to some people whose taste I knew, but thought it could have been better. I told a girl at work who only semi-liked it, since she didn't like how the ending played out (trying to avoid spoilers here just in case), what the ending of the book was (she's never going to read it). She was horrified, like I had smacked around Santa Claus right in front of a bunch of kids. Then again this is a woman who says she doesn't like movies where people die, guess the boyfriend wanted to see it, the very premise that even makes the movie possible deals with most of the world's population dying to begin with.
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Killer Bees
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« Reply #34 on: January 02, 2008, 10:51:10 PM »

She doesn't like movies where people die?  Wow, that basically cuts out at least 95% of movies doesn't it?
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Yaddo 42
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« Reply #35 on: January 04, 2008, 12:54:37 AM »

That was my thinking, or maybe she just meant movies where main characters die onscreen. I didn't get a chance to follow up.

To think I wanted to ask this girl out at one time, boy would we have had a hard time picking movies or videos to see. Couldn't even begin to explain the appeal of the Lone Wolf and Cub films to her.
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« Reply #36 on: January 04, 2008, 07:19:07 AM »

Freind took me and my kids to see it yesterday.
.CGI effects-I don't like CGI effects...when you can tell the monster was once human....tha'ts spooky. When you can tell the monster is a fancy cartoon....that's stupid and uninteresting.
.Dull. Lotsa time wandering around....the vampires were unconvincing...and they moved TOO fast! These were supposed to be diasesed people...not super-powered comic book villians! C,mon,now! Typical Hollywood bullsh1t!
 This movie basically pandered to the 12 year olds in the audiance. No real thought was put into fleshing out ANY of the charecters. I could have cared less if Will Smith,the kid,or the woman died. The dog was the best actor  in the film.
 In fact....maybe if they DID kill Will Smith FIRST,and let the dog carry the rest of the movie...I may have enjoyed it more! Whatta waste of time. Thumbdown

 Oh...one more thing. I hadn't been to a large theater in a looooooong time. I seen this in Kalamazoo...not the local Strand.   I went to the concession stand. A thin,small box of Rasinettes would have cost me $3.91 $3.91. Buggedout
Popcorn .F@cking POPCORN -small bag...VERY SMALL was almost 5 bucks!!!! Whatta f#ck is going on here!?!? I looked at the kid standing behind the candy counter and asked him..."Are you serious? " He said-'Yessir...." He didn't even blink. We sat throughthat whole stupid f5cking movie with NO POPCORN ! It was the WORST movie going experiance I had ever had. No wonder the dam thing was nearly empty. ARGGHHH!!!
If I had known that such highway robbery was going on in the concession stand...I woulda brung my own! It seemed odd when we walked in why people wer'ent lined up to buy popcorn or candy...NOW I know why. I'll stick to dollar night at the Strand for now on! It's old and run down...but at least the prices are still affordable!
   
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« Reply #37 on: January 04, 2008, 07:44:34 AM »

Oh...one more thing. I hadn't been to a large theater in a looooooong time. I seen this in Kalamazoo...not the local Strand.   I went to the concession stand. A thin,small box of Rasinettes would have cost me $3.91 $3.91. Buggedout
Popcorn .F@cking POPCORN -small bag...VERY SMALL was almost 5 bucks!!!! Whatta f#ck is going on here!?!?

Less people go to the movies nowadays because of DVD's (and since they release them about four months after a movie has had it's run at the theaters) and the general crapiness of movies.  The theater needs to find a way to balance that out so they jack up the prices on snacks.

Do what I do.  Go to a convenience store and sneak in the candy ahead of time.  The squeaky voiced teens taking your ticket is not going to pat you down or anything.  Soda is a bit of a problem but then again, I've snuck in a six-pack of beer into the theater on multiple occasions.   Cheers
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Neville
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« Reply #38 on: January 06, 2008, 11:06:33 AM »

Finally saw it last week. I had been warned against the ending, but I already imagined they would go for a more crowd-pleasing ending.

[SPOILERS FOLLOW]

Despite this, I enjoyed it inmensely, specially the scenes with Smith and his dog going through their usual routines. Even dumbing down the mutants didn't hurt much, you could see here and there they were more clever and organised than Neville thought.

Once thing did surprise me, though, is that they tried to stay faithful to the book until the very end, it just didn't make much sense having the "Shrek" scene, where Neville seems to empathise with the ogre, or having the woman acting suspiciously. If the had kept the original ending though, they would have made perfect sense.

[SPOILERS]

Anyway, I'd say it's a worthwhile film, and I'd go as far as saying that it's better than the previous adaptations. Now, if they had kept the original ending we may be speaking of a masterpiece here. But what they came up with instead is just insulting.
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Killer Bees
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« Reply #39 on: January 07, 2008, 11:14:18 PM »

Oh...one more thing. I hadn't been to a large theater in a looooooong time. I seen this in Kalamazoo...not the local Strand.   I went to the concession stand. A thin,small box of Rasinettes would have cost me $3.91 $3.91. Buggedout
Popcorn .F@cking POPCORN -small bag...VERY SMALL was almost 5 bucks!!!! Whatta f#ck is going on here!?!?

Less people go to the movies nowadays because of DVD's (and since they release them about four months after a movie has had it's run at the theaters) and the general crapiness of movies.  The theater needs to find a way to balance that out so they jack up the prices on snacks.

Do what I do.  Go to a convenience store and sneak in the candy ahead of time.  The squeaky voiced teens taking your ticket is not going to pat you down or anything.  Soda is a bit of a problem but then again, I've snuck in a six-pack of beer into the theater on multiple occasions.   Cheers

I haven't been to the movies for a VERY long time.  High prices for the tickets, concession stand and general rudeness of the movie going public are what turn me off.  Plus, if the movie isn't a cracker, I feel the need to go a-wanderin'.  So I only watch movies once they come out on DVD.  It's easy to press pause and go make coffee, go to toilet, do the dishes and then come back  BounceGiggle

The last time I went to the movies, my sister took me to Gold Class to see Revenge of the Sith.  Gold Class costs a bomb and you have these comfy lay-z-boy type recliners and there are only about 30 seats in the theatre.  They also bring you preordered food and drink and even alcohol.  I wouldn't pay for that myself (what a waste), but my sister took me as a thank you for helping her with a Uni assignment that got her an A.

Before that, under my own money, the last movie I saw was the X-Files movie.
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Heal what has been hurt
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soylentgreen
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« Reply #40 on: January 10, 2008, 10:59:02 PM »

Once thing did surprise me, though, is that they tried to stay faithful to the book until the very end, it just didn't make much sense having the "Shrek" scene, where Neville seems to empathise with the ogre, or having the woman acting suspiciously. If the had kept the original ending though, they would have made perfect sense.


I absolutely agree about the scenes of Neville's routine.  They devoted much more time to that aspect than I thought they would.  The distinct lack of score for almost the first third of the film helped immensely.  Somewhere Bernard Herrmann is smiling at that courage.

And Kudos to you, Neville(forum member) for being one of the few people I've noted talking about this film anywhere on the net who really got the point of the SHREK scene.  At best, most only get it as a take on Heston's WOODSTOCK scene from OMEGA MAN. 

Plus, I've seen deserted cities before in films(we all have, this is after all a staple of genre films...and inevitably BAD genre movies!) but never have they conveyed what a deserted city, let alone New York would really be like.  The nature-reclaimed element was ever-present and continually underlined Neville's isolation.

(They did such a bang up job with the atmosphere of NYC, it conviced me to stop at Borders and finally pick up a book I'd been fence-sitting about, The World Without Us.)

Alot of folks may have found it silly, but Smith's scene with the female mannequin in the video store was easily the most poignant moment in the film and the most moving thing I've ever seen Smith do.  While forgoing much of the smaller moments of psychological pathos in Matheson's book, I feel they made up for it here...at least a little bit.

Yes, the film derails in that last stretch, but 1)hearing stories of unhappy test audiences...2) knowing Hollywood studio-suit mentality...3)being able to detect myself changes in the editing and pace of the film...I'm willing to believe the flick was adjusted post-facto and had a different ending foisted on it from what even director Francis Lawrence and Smith had intended.

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« Reply #41 on: January 11, 2008, 12:21:13 PM »

The only real problem I had was the deviation from the ending. Making the end one of those:
"and humanity will survive...." type of things always throws it off for me.

I threw this up within 5 minutes. Only the COOL kids will get the reference. TeddyR
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m90/Shadowfire_Razaron/IRLEGEND.jpg
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Neville
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« Reply #42 on: January 12, 2008, 10:02:11 AM »

Thanks for the kudos, soylentgreen. The novel is one of my favourite books, that's why I was paying attention to anything it reminded of it in the movie.

I actually own my nickname to Robert Neville, not because mutants gather with torches outside my house at night, but because everybody else I know is a weirdo except me  Wink

Note the irony before replying.
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« Reply #43 on: January 19, 2008, 07:40:11 PM »

I thought I Am Legend was pretty good. Will Smith's performance was perfectly acceptable, and the whole atmosphere of the quiet city was very creepy. That I liked the most. I also liked the use of the dog. In fact, I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of the movie. I just didn't like the ending. I haven't read the novel to compare, but it seemed really off to me.

Today I watched The Last Man on Earth for the first time. I was amazed, though I'm probably biased because of my infatuation with Vincent Price. The scene where he was laughing hysterically and slowly began to sob was tragic.

I'm anxious to see The Omega Man!
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« Reply #44 on: January 20, 2008, 08:47:12 AM »

The only real problem I had was the deviation from the ending. Making the end one of those:
"and humanity will survive...." type of things always throws it off for me.

I threw this up within 5 minutes. Only the COOL kids will get the reference. TeddyR
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m90/Shadowfire_Razaron/IRLEGEND.jpg


Your CLOVERFIELD monster looks a little like the Demon (as animated by Disney...and based on Lugosi) from FANTASIA!
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