I Am Legend...

[Mr_Vindictive]

The Last Man On Earth is a favorite of mine.  Price doesn't play Neville as a badass, even though I believe Matheson thought of him that way in his original story.  That being said, it's a haunting and surprisingly faithful adaptation of the story.  Great film.

I have reservations about this new version but I'll probably check it out regardless.  I love the story enough to spend the money on a ticket for the film even if I feel that Smith was not the best choice in the world.  I also doubt that they will keep the ending the way it should be.  There was a huge message in that ending but Hollywood will destroy it for a happy ending.

Also, Ed Sigma, karma to you for your avatar. 

[nada]

Does Matheson's story have vampires or mutants?

In Last Man on Earth, Price fights vampires but in The Omega Man, Heston fights mutants. It just always seemed to me like vampires were shoehorned into the story because Price is more supernatural than scifi.

[Mr_Vindictive]

Nada,

Vampires, but they seem to be very much like the "ghouls" from Night Of The Living Dead.  Romero claims to actually have taken his zombie idea from I Am Legend.

[Foywonder]

From the reviews that are starting to trickle out someone might need to move this I AM LEGEND thread to the Bad Movies forum. So far word is not good.

[The Burgomaster]

I just read Matheson's book I AM LEGEND a few weeks ago.  It's only about 150 pages and is a quick read.  It's also a very good last man on earth / vampire story.  THE LAST MAN ON EARTH with Vincent Price is reasonably faithful to the book.  THE OMEGA MAN has general plot and character similarities, but is quite different from the book in many ways.  Will Smith's version also looks very different based on the trailers.  But I'm still looking forward to it.

[Killer Bees]

I think the main trouble with the bad reviews could be because people who read the book are expecting the film makers to do it justice.  ANd we all know that NEVER happens.

If you take the movie on it's own merits, it should be fine.  After all the purists screamed when Smith did I Robot.  I am an Asimov fan but I didn't take exception to the fact the movie just took the whiff of a SF idea and made it their own.

Unless of course the movie is dreck for its own sake, then the booing might be justified.  It will be like most things - some people will love it, some will hate it.  I never go by what the critics say.  They get paid to be narky b@stards.  If they gave movies 5 out of 5 each time they'd be out of a job.

I wil see it, but because I'm stingy, I'll wait for it to come out on DVD.

[Foywonder]

No; the bad review is coming from those simply saying it's a bad movie. Consensus seems to be the same: Will Smith is badly miscast, the CGI used for the monsters is shockingly bad, and the new (just reshot a few weeks ago) ending is terrible.

[Killer Bees]

Awesome!  Now I want to see it even more!

[Sister Grace]

I refuse to go pay ten dollars to watch this at the theatre...I can't take more than ten minutes of anything with will smith in it. Not to mention Last Man on Earth is one of my favs and i don't want to see it butchered. As a kid we often watched old re-runs of wild wild west at my house on saturday mornings..lets just say i don't want to see what will smith done to wild wild west be repeated in another classic...

[BoyScoutKevin]

Well, if this one turns out as bad, as it sounds it well, they might have to do a fourth version of Richard Matheson's story, as he has been quoted as saying that he was unhappy with the earlier versions with Vincent Price and Charlton Heston, and hoped the version with Will Smith would finally do his story justice.

[Susan]

well the movie can only be an improvement, i never did like the book. One of those books that started off good but didn't go the way i was expecting. dwelled too much on that woman

[Scott]

Saw I AM LEGEND a couple nights ago and it's a poorly executed film with worthless backflashes, bad cgi, and yes Will Smith trying to be Will Smith. This is a major dud and it makes 28 DAYS LATER look like a masterpiece. The film seemed to be a vehicle for some social statement that makes Smith's character a Colonel who finds the cure for this virus. This idea is ok, but the film just doesn't do anything for the audience to hope nor cheer him on. We honestly felt more for the dog. The theater was packed. Everyone just kinda walked out. Better yet go see THE MIST if you can still find it in the theaters.

(4 out of 10 Stars) Wait for it to come out on commercial TV.

[Oldskool138]

(4 out of 10 Stars) Wait for it to come out on commercial TV.

To coin a phrase, "Awww, hell naw!"   

I knew they'd "F" up the story...Plus, Will Smith is too Will Smith for his own good.

[Eric45]

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

[AnubisVonMojo]

Well, if this one turns out as bad, as it sounds it well, they might have to do a fourth version of Richard Matheson's story, as he has been quoted as saying that he was unhappy with the earlier versions with Vincent Price and Charlton Heston, and hoped the version with Will Smith would finally do his story justice.

Actually Kev, if you count Asylum movies (and, come on, nobody does  ), there's already a fourth adaptation: I Am Omega, as starring Mark Dacascos! Yay!

My problem with adaptation movies has always been this: if you're not going to be faithful to the book (like the way they took such liberties when making The Omega Man), then why the Hell are you even bothering to keep the title of the source material? Out of the four adaptations, this is the first to actually use the name and it sounds like they should have just done what everyone before them did and use a different title. This way people who like the movie don't have to defend the studios' decisions to change things. It's so much easier to just say, "Inspired by Richard Matheson's 'I Am Legend'" than it is to call it I Am Legend and just take the backlash from the book's fans. Then again, we've seen Will Smith do that plenty of times over the last 10 years, so obviously nobody gives a s**t about the fanbase that comes attached with a franchise so long as they can make non-fans happy and make $76 million on opening weekend... I don't care either way, I gave up on any of this s**t making sense years ago.