I Am Legend

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 6:29 pm

Anyone here see this yet?
I saw it myself just this morning, and was quite impressed with it. I was expecting it to be filled to the brim with 'meh', but it was actualy rather well done. Some parts are quite touching, and there are a good few scenes which are genuinely spooky. Also, seeing how he dealt with being alone for three years was quite amusing.

[some spoilers]
I thought the flashback scenes showing what happened to his wife and daughter, and how the whole thing came about, were rather good. And Sam's death scene was quite sad.
[/spoilers]

Anyway, I'd say it's well worth the money to see it.

DarkOmen · Post by **DarkOmen** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 8:35 pm

I liked the whole movie a lot, except the last 10 minutes or so... the ending was just really anti-climactic.

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 9:07 pm

Yeah, the ending would have been much better if they'd done the ending from the book.

Jordanis · Post by **Jordanis** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 9:22 pm

I actually liked the ending... it was a little clichÃ©d, I will admit, but I have a weakness for certain select clichÃ©s.

Overall, yeah, I liked the movie a lot. The last I knew of Will Smith as an actor was Men in Black and Independence Day, so him being able to actually act (which he sure can, in this) comes as a bit of a shocker.

DarkOmen · Post by **DarkOmen** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 10:59 pm

I liked Will Smith in I, Robot too... twas a good movie.

Jordanis · Post by **Jordanis** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 12:10 am

DarkOmen wrote:I liked Will Smith in I, Robot too... twas a good movie.

Never saw it. Heard it was an atrocity against the book and never did bother.

Deepcrush · Post by **Deepcrush** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 12:46 am

Jordanis wrote:
DarkOmen wrote:I liked Will Smith in I, Robot too... twas a good movie.
Never saw it. Heard it was an atrocity against the book and never did bother.

What movie isn't?

That doesn't make it a bad movie. Just pretend that its just luck that they have the same title.

Jordanis · Post by **Jordanis** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 12:49 am

Deepcrush wrote:
Jordanis wrote:
DarkOmen wrote:I liked Will Smith in I, Robot too... twas a good movie.
Never saw it. Heard it was an atrocity against the book and never did bother.
What movie isn't?

That doesn't make it a bad movie. Just pretend that its just luck that they have the same title.

Well, mostly it's because that was right around the time I wanted to pick up a copy of I, Robot. But they released the new printing then, and that was all I could find: I, Robot with Will freaking Smith on the cover.

I didn't want my book collection to look like I'd only heard of Asimov because of the movie or something, so I kept looking. I STILL don't have a copy of that dang book.

Post by **Graham Kennedy** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 6:20 pm

Loved the first two thirds; had potential to be one of the better "end of the world" movies ever. The last third... never have I seen such promise squandered and fumbled so badly.

I can think of at least two or three better ways to resolve that story than the way they went.

Jordanis · Post by **Jordanis** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 10:53 pm

GrahamKennedy wrote:I can think of at least two or three better ways to resolve that story than the way they went.

Enlighten us, then!

Post by **Graham Kennedy** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 11:38 am

Heh. Well, for instance...

1) The woman shows up talking about how God told her where the survivors were. She slowly wins Will Smith over. He doesn't sacrifice himself, he gets away with her. A few miles short of the colony their car breaks down and they slog it on foot. They reach it just as the sun sets... and a horde of infected pour out and run at them, screaming, as Will realises the woman was wrong all along.

2) The woman shows up talking about how God told her where the survivors are. She wins Will over. He survives, they go there... and there's simply nothing there. She cracks up at the realisation that the voices she has been hearing in her head are imaginary.

3) The woman shows up talking about how God told her where the survivors are. She wins Will over. He survives, they go there... and there's simply nothing there. He turns around to her... and she's not there either. Will realises that he's cracked up and was imagining her all along.

4) The book ending! It slowly becomes apparent to Will that the infected are much, much more intelligent than he thought. They eventually capture him, and he realises that they can think and talk. He realises that he is some sort of bogeyman to them - he hunts them down during the day, has abducted dozens of them to "torture" in his lab... as they take him to be executed he realises that in this new world it is he who is the monster; hence his name is Legend.

Jordanis · Post by **Jordanis** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 11:53 am

I like the third option best. I'm not actually that fond of the book ending. The first two, I think, overcomplicate things. With number three, it remains, in the end, about him going crazy, which he acted out very well. Of the first two, one is better. Two has an insufficient conclusion, and I think moves the spotlight off Will too much.

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 1:07 pm

I like your third option, Graham. Though I still prefer the book's ending. Even when you watch the film, you can see where the infected appear to have inteligence.
For example; using Fred to bait him into falling into a trap, a trap which is almost identical to the ones he'd been setting for the infected.
Just after he captures the female infected, a male runs out and exposes himself to the sun. Perhaps he had caught the infected's wife, or something?
Then at the end, when the infected are attacking his house, one of them ignores him completely, and runs upstairs to break a hole in the roof to let others in.
Then there's the fact that they work in groups, showing that, despite Smith's declaration otherwise, they still have some sort of social order.

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 3:26 pm

I thought the mutants abilities were a little overdone.

Post by **Graham Kennedy** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 7:01 pm

Rochey wrote:Even when you watch the film, you can see where the infected appear to have inteligence.

I really thought they were heading that way when I watched it. When they trap him with the cable, I was like "whoa, these guys are thinking and planning creative strategies!" Then when we see the inside of his lab, there's hundreds of pictures on the walls and I thought "wow, if those things can think they must really hate this guy!"

I've never read the book by the way, so I didn't know that's where the book went until I read up on it afterwards. But it really seemed a much better ending. To suddenly tack on a "god is giving us messages" ending... well not only is it at odds with everything that happened so far, but just think about it for a moment. As Will himself said, something like 90% of the world's population was killed by the virus - 5.4 BILLION people. And most of the rest were turned into zombies. Then the movie posits that god not only exists but actively interferes in the world. So... the conclusion is that god's a bit of a bastard really! He let all those people die!

And another thing. This may sound heard hearted but... why would people want a cure? You're down to a hundred million or so population. Probably much less than that, frankly, given how the infected attack the living. The people who are left are going to have to spend every possible effort just surviving and scratching around to establish some sort of viable civilisation, for at least a few generations. To steal a line from Galactica, the remaining Human species had better find a safe place and start having babies! And yet the movie is suggesting that they are going to go out and "cure" a population that has to be ten times the size of their own... and then provide whatever aftercare and rehabilitation they need? Sorry, not going to happen.

This is another thought I had about the way the movie might go, actually. All the way through he's working on this cure... well after there is any actual need for it. I figured the woman who turned up might well end up saying "Yeah, nice, but.... well what's the point?" - at which point we realise he's only actually doing this because he promised his wife he would, and he can't bear to give it up.