I just saw I Am Legend – the 2007 movie adaptation of Richard Matheson’s novel under the same title. I haven’t read the book yet, but I hear it is much better than this movie. This usually doesn’t happen to me – I usually watch movie adaptations of books/graphic novels/games that I loved, and get to rant how bad was, how the Hollywood totally ruined the story, missed the forest for the trees and etc. This time around, I don’t know the source material so I must take this movie on it’s own terms.
Is it a good movie? Yes, it’s worth watching but not spectacular in any sense. The begging of the movie is great. The scenes with Will Smith wandering around the desolate ruined New York came out great. My only complaint was the cgi looked a bit dated. Yes, it’s a brand new movie, but I the wild animals roaming the streets looked as if they crawled out of Phantom Menace. And no, that is not a compliment – I’m saying that this 2007 movie looks as if they went back in time and animated these scenes back then. But this is a minor complaint because New York looks phenomenal and Will Smith delivers. I will dare to say that this is one of his best performances yet.
The daily life of Robert Neville and his relationship with his dog is really the strongest part of the movie – eerie vibe of ruined ghost city is juxtaposed against the lonely life of the last man on earth and his four legged best friend. You feel the tension building up as they prepare for the night, and sleep in the bathtub listening to inhuman screams outside the barricaded windows. This buildup leads up to the point where the dog accidentally runs into a dark basement of some sort chasing a panicked deer. Neville runs in after him, only to discover that the building is still inhabited by the bloodthirsty, savage survivors of the virus that killed almost everyone on the planet.
This is a really great scene with Will Smith navigating the pitch black rooms knowing full well that the inhuman monsters are lurking somewhere in the dark. Up to this point we fear the unknown and unseen. Unfortunately as it tends to happen in these types of movies, as soon as you see the monster, the fear and tension dissipates significantly. The idea here was to transition into a zombie type movie scare tactics which would have worked great if not for a little detail. Instead of using makeup and prosthetics to create the victims of the virus, they decided to do them in cgii. If you look back at my comments regarding fake deer and lions, you can imagine why I think they dropped the ball here.
The “I Am Legend” zombies/vampires look a little bit like Imhotep from The Mummy complete with the baldness and the expandable jaw thing he did when screaming. It was really an odd choice since all the other zombie movies used human actors with a much better effect. Just watch the “28 days/months later” movies on how to make fast moving zombies without cgi. The thing about computer animated characters is that we can see they are fake. With weird looking things like Xenomorphs it’s easy for us to suspend disbelief. But with humans we hit the uncanny valley problem which brings the whole set of new issues to the table. I think that using actors to play the infected would be much more effective – but that’s just me.
When Will Smith shines his flashlight and catches a glimpse of a group of virus victims in that pitch black basement, you shit bricks. Then you see them and you are no longer scared – now you are just freaked out because the director sets up the shots in such a way that the appearance of laud shrieking zombie-vamp is always preceded by a quiet tension building moments. So it’s not like they are particularly scary. They just jump out at you when you least expect it.
Another great scene is when Neville accidentally doesn’t get home on time and must reach his car as the sun is going down and the baddies are crawling out of their daytime hiding holes. Once again, shitting bricks up until the monsters come out. Then its just: “oh just get up and run your idiot – you can cry about your wounded leg in the car!” The scene with the dog after that is kinda touching as well. Then things go down hill.
I kept waiting for the big twist, which never came. Supposedly the book has a major twist at the end. My brother who saw one of the earlier two adaptations of the book (don’t know which one) said that it too ended in a huge WTF inducing surprise. But, alas there was no twist. Could it be that they felt that dumbing things down was necessary to make the movie more accessible to the current generation of the movie goers? Or did they simply changed the story so much from the original that the ending twist just didn’t fit, and they were to lazy to make up their own?
Since I was waiting for something big the ending felt a bit disappointing and empty for me. It’s as if they were setting up this big punchline for the whole movie, and then just decided to let the built up tension and mystery petter out and never went anywhere with it.
If I was making this movie, I would drop the CGI for the infected, and in general show less of them. For example, there was no need to show them at all in the dark basement scene. Will Smith could have just grabbed the dog, and then run out of there like a bat out of hell while a screaming mass of unseen terror would chase him from the depth of the darkness. That would be scary as hell… But then again, hindsight is 20-20, and if you have a huge budget for cgi, you sometimes tend to forget that less is more. :P
Did I enjoy the movie? Yes, you should probably see it just to see Will Smith roaming around in the ruined New York. Just don’t expect something huge. Just few awesome scenes, tons of cheep “quiet, quiet LOUD” shockers a typical Hollywood copout ending.
[tags]i am legend, will smith, richard matheson[/tags]
SPOILER ALERT!! DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE!
I agree 100% with the CGI issue. Those stupid zombies reminded me of the robot’s from I, Robot. I think the same company must have done the CGI. In my opinion though, the big “WOW” moment was waaaaaay at the end when Neville and that chick realized his vaccine did in fact work and he found a cure for the virus. It took forever to take effect, but does work. Essentially they just have to know catch all the MILLIONS of zombies and cure them, but still, a cure none-the-less.
You might be right, but considering how people talked about the book and the earlier movies I expected something really big at the end. :P
SPOILER ALERT!!!!
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Yeah, I agreed with the WTF ending. You are all set up to empathize with main character and his relationship with his dog. And further thrown into jeopardy when his dog got infected and he essentially had to kill his best and only friend in the whole world. But the ending kinda spoiled those moments for me when they showed that there is a large uninfected human colony somewhere seemingly nearby.
Didn’t know it was based on a novel. Now I just HAVE to get it.
The novel is actually a collection of short stories; the first couple deal with vampires, then the book peters into scary short stories. The best story, however it the first one — I am legend. Set in the 1970’s, much of the story takes place in the character’s head, as he is the last human survivor. Surprisingly, the entire book was written in the 1950’s, so to think that this story is so old is pretty cool, especially because all but one of the stories in the book seem dated at all.
Check it out…or buy the book for the first story, then return it…
I just read the story, and you are right Dave – it doesn’t seem all that dated at all. Also, very, very different from this movie. Actually, the only thing the movie and the story have in common is the central theme of the last man on earth trying to survive in a world populated by light-hating monsters. :P
Yeah, the third half was utter bollocks. Why he didn’t just throw the grenade and then go into the safe with Anna and Ethan after was beyond me. There was a gap in the glass, and the fuse time was plenty long enough. Idiot.
The best parts were easily ruined new york, and the shop dummy scenes.
“FRED!!?!?! IF YOUR REAL YOU BETTER TELL ME RIGHT NOW MAN” That scene was totally excellent. Until the zombies turned up with the zombie dogs. They should have carried it on with all of the shop dummies rearranged. Woulda’ been terrific, really rachting up the surrealism and tension.
Actually, he put that dummy there himself – he set that trap at some point and then forgot about it.
But yes, as soon as the zombie dogs appeared the tension was ruined.
Hm.. I thought it was the darkseekers copying his methodology as revenge after he bagsied one of them using that, and fred is normally on the sidewalk. I’ll just take your word for it.
Well, the thing is – the dark seekers never gave us any indication that they can be *that* intelligent. Mostly they just yell and try to eat you. I mean, if they were smart enough to rig this trap how come they didn’t figure out a better strategy for charging the house? Or how come they didn’t think to use one of the heavy metal tables to help breaking the glass in the lab. This type of careful planning would be beyond them – least from what we have seen.
I’m entirely convinced he set this up as a trap to get specimens for human testing and then completely forgot about it.
Oh, and another thing you said – very good point about the grenade. Put it by the glass door, jump into the hole, come out and shoot whoever was left alive.
Another point – the grenade could have easily damage some of the support beams and cause the basement lab to collapse trapping the woman and the boy.
Oh, and he just left the cured woman to die. WTF was with that – he just saved her and then he just blew her up.
I think the darkseekers are fairly intelligent. Like the one ripping a hole in the roof too let the other through. Though Fred’s movements and the trap remain a mystery- if Nev set it up too catch a darkseeker, surely it would be The OTHER SIDE of the puddle, facing the hole in the wall? Fred was facing outwards, into the street, which is subject too daylight. A darkseeker would come from the hole in the wall, instead of from the street. It’s an inconsistency I think implies it was set by the darkseekers, and Nev seemed genuinely and seriously freaked out by the movement of Fred.
It could be – but I still think he trapped himself. The movement was definitely all in his head. I do agree that the dark seekers seemed intelligent, but in a very low-level animalistic way. Brutally ripping apart the ceiling to let his buddies in is a little bit different from setting a trap though.
But then again, we never know. Sometimes they seemed somewhat intelligent, and sometimes incredibly dumb and reckless. Go figure.
Similar discussion seems to be happening here. Also, a random google gave me this site, where someone posed a middle of the road explanation: dark seekers moved Fred, but the trap was originally set up by Neville.
How you can write show much text! Long wow diary and this!
Fred was definitely moved, no doubt about it. I don’t think fred is a hallucination at all- There’s nothing too imply it apart from the lack of explanation for Freds movements. Overall, I think the darkseekers are pack hunters, like raptors. After all, we see them come in waves towards the house and clustering in a “Hive” instead of being seperate.
k00pa – I don’t know… lol Superpowers!
@Mackenzie – oh no – Fred is definitely real. I just don’t think it really moved it’s head when Neville was driving by. I think that head movement was a hallucination.
I guess the possible solutions are:
1. Neville moved Fred, set the trap then forgot about it
2. It’s not Fred but some other mannequin that Nevile used for the trap and forgot about. I mean, it’s possible he found another manequin in an orange jacket at the same or another store of the same chain and decided to put him there at some point in the past.
3. Neville set the trap and the Dark Seekers moved Fred to bait him
4. Dark Seekers set up the trap and moved Fred
I’m very skeptical of #4 because of what I said above. #3 is plausible but it bothers me a little bit. Personally #2 and #1 are the most appealing possibilities to me. Sadly neither one of these is perfect.
1 doesn’t work because of the placement of fred facing the street.
2 is possible, though unlikely. 2 dummies is unecessary and confusing. It doesn’t follow cinematic logic, esp. since there was no “Fred revealed” thing at the end, when it turns out he has an evil twin or something. Fred is a generic character who’s only purpose is placement, so 2 freds wouldn’t follow. Moviewise, it would be self defeating.
3 is the most plausible, I reckon. The placement of fred was perfect too the darkseekers advantage, but the trap relied on nevvies kit and innovation.
4, possible, though less plausible. It would be a serious mental effort for the darkseekers to copy the trap, as well as having to gather the materials and set it up.
The positioning doesn’t really bother me that much. For example, the trap could be set up this way:
Dot's are the puddle, # is rope. The loop could be going all around Fred so that anyone approaching from front, back or sides will be captured.
But yes, it is a gaping pothole and no one knows what really happened. :P
Hm.. I still think the fact fred was facing the street was the giveaway, but good point nonetheless
And in conclusion, I think we’ve both spent an unhealthy amount of time on this.
Actually, I think that the fact that he was facing the street supports my theory. Note that he used the same trick on the pier – a mannequin sitting at his desk, facing away from the land.
If Fred was facing the building, the Dark Seekers would see his face and realize it was a dummy. Since he is facing away, they may be tempted to either jump him, or come close and investigate, and thus get caught. At least that’s how I see it.
But yes, we are probably looking to much into this. :mrgreen:
Yup, it’s my first time here and I was overwhelmed by the long posts. You have tons of ideas! Anyways, I would still watch it for I am a fan…
I stumbled upon this conversation and found this problem very interesting, I think the most likely scenario is that the darkseekers set up the entire trap for him. The way I see it the one who came running after the girl neville captured into the sunlight showed that he still had emotion and was unique in that he still kept some human attributes and might have been able to stalk neville, and using fred copy neville’s trap. The reasons I see for this is neville went ballistic when he saw fred moved, so it’s unlikely that he just forgot about setting up a complex trap a day or two before, even if he he was going a little nuts. The idea it was an old trap and fred was just moved there doesn’t make since either because neville was very careful with keeping track of everything he did and on a map so he would have known there was still an unused trap. But finally the biggest reason I see for it being totally set up by darkseekers is neville puts a blanket down over all of his traps because the darkseekers would die if exposed to the light. Now if neville had set it the captured darkseeker would be useless to him because the body would already be dead. So my question is if neville set it up where is the blanket, why did he go so ballistic and have no memory of it, and why wouldn’t he have the trap written down on his map?
Entertaining movie. Will Smith is a great actor. However I was disappointed with the story. I recommend reading All of Yesterdays Tomorrows. A better story, more believable.