Official I Am Legend Thread

[JoeCat]

I must give Danoyse kudos for that lengthy reply.

 

[Angry Sentinel]

Edit...Did anyone think the lady and kid weren't real at first? When the dark seekers came crashing in and he kept calling there names, I thought the scene would turn out with them only existing in his mind. That would've been really sad, yet awesome, imo.

That would have rocked socks. The only real 'weak' part of this movie is its typical Bollywood, happy ending. Although they do get some credit for killing the main characters. The great part of your idea is they could have done this and still worked in him finding the cure.

^Haha, cool, yes...but that would have made the movie even more depressing than the book. The Mist proved that people aren't down with somber endings, unless it's done ironically like in a horror slasher flick.

I haven't read the book yet. I have learned that there is no way to enjoy these films by reading the book before seeing it. And I heard several people, while I was leaving the film, saying they were not happy that Neville died. So technically it was still somber enough for some mainstreamers.

 

[Kanon]

I had the feeling Neville was imagining the woman and the kid too... specially when Neville finds them in the kitchen and for a little while they act like there is absolubtely normal to meet new people...

 

[Space Moose]

I made the mistake of reading the Mark Prov script before seeing this. The one meant for Ridley Scott and to star Arnie and have some big ass budget. That freakin' rocked!! This movie seemed like a REALLy watered down version of that. I blame no-one but Akiva Goldsman who I beleive is one of the WORST writers EVER.

 

[terry78]

Ahnold: I am dah last man on da Earf. I don't haff any udders wif me. I...AM....LEGEND!!!!

 

[Honeysuckle]

I wish I had a time machine, because then I could go back in time and not have to see "I Am Legend".

First of all, I dig Will Smith. I really do. He's good people, one of my favorites, and he's been robbed of an Oscar TWICE.... Ali, and Pursuit of Happyness.

But dammit, I just couldn't like "I Am Legend." I tried really hard, but I couldn't. It's impossible to like. It has no substance, no character, no story, no point. The fundamental elements of a good story are entirely absent. What pisses me off is that people LOVE it, and it's made like $150 Million already. I don't get it.

I'll start from the beginning.

Opening scene. We learn that a female scientist has cured cancer. She literally CURED cancer. Next scene, we see Will Smith, 3 years later, in a beautiful Mustang that is mysteriously NEVER SEEN again in this movie.. Why?

Questions to ask within the first 2 minutes of the film:

1. Why did the Mustang disappear?

2. Why is Will Smith hunting deer? What is the point of hunting deer, when he's got the entire city to himself, and he's got about 1,000 grocery stores to find food? Yes, electricity is gone, so meat has spoiled in the stores... but still, why EXACTLY must he hunt deer?

3. Why are there lions and tigers roaming the city and killing deer after only 3 years? How can there be deer, lions, and tigers in the city, when most of NYC is surrounded by water? Are the lions and tigers from the zoo? If so, how would they escape? This is pointless and unexplainable.

4. Why haven't these animals been killed off by the infected zombies, when almost every human being has been killed?

5. Why exactly is Will Smith the last man in the area? Why him? Why not the President, or any military? What did Will Smith do that was so much different than our national security? You're telling me he was smarter than everyone else in most of the country?

6. How could Will Smith has survived this long, when we learn later on that he is probably the worst shot in the world? He manages to shoot everything in his house BUT a zombie.

7. What the hell are the creatures? Zombies? Vampires? Jehovah Witnesses?

8. Why would Will Smith stay in New York City all by himself instead of seeking rescue, finding survivors, moving his lab somewhere else, or finding a survivor's colony? Why would he be all alone in a big empty city for 3 years without wondering what's outside the city?

--- If you lived in Cleveland, and everyone in Cleveland suddenly died, and you were the LAST person in Cleveland, surrounded by Vampires at night, would YOU stay in Cleveland for 3 years??? HELL NO. You'd get your pretty ass out of there.

Those are just a few questions. I haven't even scratched the surface yet.

Let's sum up the whole premise like this:

So the cure for cancer mysteriously mutated, turned into a virus that transformed people into vampires, it spread all over the world, and Will Smith ends up being the last man on earth... or so we think. These vampires only come out at night, because the Sun burns them, much like vampires. Will Smith is mysteriously immune to the virus, but we never find out why.

Why?
Why?
Why?

This movie tries to be extremely intelligent, but there's not a single ounce of intelligence in this entire thing. This is 2 hours of NOTHING.

The special effects are terrible. An XBOX-360 is a thousand times more advanced than this.

The acting is terrible. Will Smith tries to cry in front of mannequins because they're the only "people" he sees anymore... yet he refuses to leave the city and find REAL people.

Bob Marley is overused. The writers, for SOME goddamn reason, tried to connect the genius of Marley's music to infected vampires wiping out the world... and the connection makes no sense.

This movie is boring. There. I said it. It's boring. There's nothing interesting going on here.

The writers, once again, try to be brilliant by doing two things here:

1. The dog, "Sam", is a POOR imitation of "Wilson", the volleyball in "Cast Away".

2. This entire movie is a POOR imitation of "28 Days Later". If you want to see how apocalyptic horror is SUPPOSED to be done, rent "28 Days Later". You'll thank me.

The ending proves that the entire movie is pointless. We learn that Will Smith's character actually didn't matter, because there's a colony in Vermont. The cure he discovers also doesn't matter, since there are people already alive and well somewhere else. So, what was the point of seeing this for 2 hours? There was NO point. Nothing in this movie mattered.

Last, but certainly not least.... The title of the movie. I Am Legend. What did Will Smith do in this movie that was legendary? What the hell happened in this movie that made him a legend? He did nothing. Nothing was legendary. The character is proven pointless by the end.

I Am Pointless.

This movie sucked. I'm sorry... you may not agree... but this movie sucked.

Cast Away + 28 Days Later = Failure.

And don't even get me started on the poster... with a phrase that is a total lie, in big fancy letters.


We find out there's a woman and her son, a colony of people, etc. It's all pointless. You can't just ****ing LIE for no reason. This movie had so much potential, and yet it failed at every point.

Now, I realize that this was based on a book by Richard Matheson that came out many years ago, so I shouldn't point the finger at Hollywood for making such a ****ty movie. But HONESTLY, the book is actually WORTH reading. It's actually good, unlike this movie. The movie seems to take a **** all over the novel. Really, this movie is pretty much a "How To" on writing very bad stuff. It's a perfect blueprint for making pointless ****.


Read the book.
Don't see the movie.
Save your soul.
Save your money.

And then for some goddamn reason, Will Smith recites lines form "Shrek" for LITERALLY two minutes... two minutes of just wasting time, when they could be focusing on something IMPORTANT.

Screw this movie, man. Screw it.

a special need kid.

 

[Ash J. Williams]

a special need kid.

I would have to agree.

 

[Figs]

I would have to agree.

I also agree. The fact that he couldn't figure out why Smith was hunting for meat IE: PROTEIN, yet answers his own question saying that most likely all the meat in the grocery stores has gone bad. Contrary to Vegan/vegetarian beliefs you do need meat wether it's from fish or not for protein. There were too many other questions he had for me to even finish the entire rant.

In short, with those last few phrases you can tell he was a huge fan of the book and got ******** that it didn't follow it 100%.

 

[Sugarculted]

Ahnold: I am dah last man on da Earf. I don't haff any udders wif me. I...AM....LEGEND!!!!

I'd pay money for that

 

[danoyse]

I must give Danoyse kudos for that lengthy reply.

Thank you. I wanted my first post of 2008 to be a memorable one. t:

 

[thejon93]

I personally thought that this film was great. Will Smith, is an absolutly phenomenal. He really evolved ever since The Pursuit of Happyness and you can really see get a sense of that logic from this film. The action and sense of this man stranded here alone with murderous... whatever those things are on his tale. That was basically the only thing I found wrong with this film, it was unnessisary and un-needed; I mean I'd rather see Will go up against polar bears then these guys who are literally ripped right off of that scary as hell horror flick, The Descent. Anyhow I thought this film was awesome, but I can definitly not call it 'Legend', but it is still an enjoyable action flick with the exception of only one major flaw; the enemies.

 

[Movies205]

I AM LEGEND
Directed by Francis Lawrence
Rating: 6.5/10

(Note: I’ve never read the book so I’m judging the separate from it, also I call the creatures in this film vampires, I know there not exactly vampires)

This is a film that could have been magnificent but alas dippers off into the land of memorable mediocrities. The film’s plot isn’t all together original, killer virus constructed by humans destroys the population however to some extent the execution is. The choice to isolate Will Smith’s character Neville from the rest of the world is great and really would have made for an excellent character study however this is where the movie falls apart. The film lacks any sort of cohesion between scenes, the script is a mess, and needed a strong rewrite.

The first forty five minutes of the film is great, excellent scene of style, and a great character. Perhaps the biggest selling point of the film is Will Smith who absolutely became Neville. Outside of some of the usual Will Smithisms, Will Smith created a unique character in which the audience could really empathize with his pain at least in the first 45 minutes. The second strong point of the film is the world in which Lawrence creates. The use of non-green screen sets is absolutely refreshing, there’s certain realness, to the Post-Apocalyptic New York that Lawrence has crafted. This is why the first forty five minutes is great, is that it something completely different than most of the high-budget film fare that is being pushed out now a days, it was a slow yet highly fascinating character study.

The problem arises the moment we actually see the vampires. First off that entire sequence inside the warehouse had the potential to be great yet it runs far too long. Second the vampires look HORRIBLE, seriously who could actually think those CGI abominations look scary or even good? This is one of the biggest detractors from the film is Lawrence’s overreliance on CGI which was also a fault in Constantine (2005). Lawrence had created as I said a fascinating world yet he completely cheapens and ruins the experience by ripping the audience out of the fantasy with these flashy CGI abominations. Vampires from prosthetics would have put this movie over the top.

Next problem is that the moment the dog dies the entire film goes into cliché horror/survival mode. The reason for this is that the vampires themselves are incredibly dull and unoriginal. Every great vampire/zombie film that has come before this was great because they added there own touches to the creatures that were causing horror. Further complicating issues is the fact that the cliché horror/survival movie completely clashes with the first forty five minutes of the film since so far the audience is interested in Neville’s survival and how he interacts in this world. The scene where Neville’s dog dies is truly touching. What ensues afterwards is a completely random scene where Neville randomly attacks the vampires and then is randomly saved by two characters introduced OUT OF NOWHERE. The narrative further devolves into nothing but filler with Neville’s little God doesn’t exist speech, etc. The main problem with all the scenes that involve these characters is there is absolutely no set-up for it what so ever. The audience’s pay-off is never coming from the first 45 minutes for the film has completely changed. What in the end happens is an ending that comes literally out of nowhere and is far too convenient and nowhere near satisfying. In the end an entertaining albeit mediocre movie with an ending that’ll just leave you pissed off.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

I personally thought that this film was great. Will Smith, is an absolutly phenomenal. He really evolved ever since The Pursuit of Happyness and you can really see get a sense of that logic from this film. The action and sense of this man stranded here alone with murderous... whatever those things are on his tale. That was basically the only thing I found wrong with this film, it was unnessisary and un-needed; I mean I'd rather see Will go up against polar bears then these guys who are literally ripped right off of that scary as hell horror flick, The Descent. Anyhow I thought this film was awesome, but I can definitly not call it 'Legend', but it is still an enjoyable action flick with the exception of only one major flaw; the enemies.

I think the problem is the film was good, not great, when it could have easily been.

 

[Dangerous]

Film was ok but the CGI sucked ass.

 

[Midnhtsun]

Opening scene. We learn that a female scientist has cured cancer. She literally CURED cancer. Next scene, we see Will Smith, 3 years later, in a beautiful Mustang that is mysteriously NEVER SEEN again in this movie.. Why?
Questions to ask within the first 2 minutes of the film:

1. Why did the Mustang disappear?
It was not an important part of the movie, he has every car to himself in the city so why does he always have to use the same car?

2. Why is Will Smith hunting deer? What is the point of hunting deer, when he's got the entire city to himself, and he's got about 1,000 grocery stores to find food? Yes, electricity is gone, so meat has spoiled in the stores... but still, why EXACTLY must he hunt deer?
Hmm fresh meat geez who wouldnt want that. Oh and something about rashining out non perishable foods.

3. Why are there lions and tigers roaming the city and killing deer after only 3 years? How can there be deer, lions, and tigers in the city, when most of NYC is surrounded by water? Are the lions and tigers from the zoo? If so, how would they escape? This is pointless and unexplainable.
Why does it need to be explained? How would this benefit the movie or main story line. We can assume they escaped from the zoo, then end.

4. Why haven't these animals been killed off by the infected zombies, when almost every human being has been killed?
It doesn't matter its a plot hole that wouldn't add anything to the movie even if it was explained

5. Why exactly is Will Smith the last man in the area? Why him? Why not the President, or any military? What did Will Smith do that was so much different than our national security? You're telling me he was smarter than everyone else in most of the country?
If you were watching the movie and paying attention to it, Neville was immune!!!

6. How could Will Smith has survived this long, when we learn later on that he is probably the worst shot in the world? He manages to shoot everything in his house BUT a zombie.
For one it showed what he did to fortify his house that he stayed in all night, and that the vampires didnt know where he lived.

7. What the hell are the creatures? Zombies? Vampires? Jehovah Witnesses?

8. Why would Will Smith stay in New York City all by himself instead of seeking rescue, finding survivors, moving his lab somewhere else, or finding a survivor's colony? Why would he be all alone in a big empty city for 3 years without wondering what's outside the city?
Christ man watch the movie that was explained plain as day 2x, once when he was in the car with his wife then when he met the lady near the end. He was staying at ground zero where the first person was infected, in order to try to find a cure!!!!

--- If you lived in Cleveland, and everyone in Cleveland suddenly died, and you were the LAST person in Cleveland, surrounded by Vampires at night, would YOU stay in Cleveland for 3 years??? HELL NO. You'd get your pretty ass out of there.
See the above

Those are just a few questions. I haven't even scratched the surface yet.

Will Smith is mysteriously immune to the virus, but we never find out why.
If you would have watched the movie it is assumed with the religious undertones that it was divine intervention/fate is why he was made immune, it was his purpose to survive and find a cure.

The acting is terrible. Will Smith tries to cry in front of mannequins because they're the only "people" he sees anymore... yet he refuses to leave the city and find REAL people.
You are extremely short sighted, that was one of the most powerful scene out of the movie.

Bob Marley is overused. The writers, for SOME goddamn reason, tried to connect the genius of Marley's music to infected vampires wiping out the world... and the connection makes no sense.
Once again your stupidity finds a whole new level, the lyrics were about hope. That is what helped keep him going and why he listened to it so much.

1. The dog, "Sam", is a POOR imitation of "Wilson", the volleyball in "Cast Away".
I can understand the relation here, but this isnt new you realize this was a book and it had been made into 2 movies prior. In Omega Man, Charleton Heston used a statue, oh wait that movie came out in the 70's so do you still mean to tell me they were ripping off castaway?

2. This entire movie is a POOR imitation of "28 Days Later". If you want to see how apocalyptic horror is SUPPOSED to be done, rent "28 Days Later". You'll thank me.
Do you even know what year the book was written? Then how can they be ripping it off? And 28 was a completely different style and take on the genre.

The ending proves that the entire movie is pointless. We learn that Will Smith's character actually didn't matter, because there's a colony in Vermont. The cure he discovers also doesn't matter, since there are people already alive and well somewhere else. So, what was the point of seeing this for 2 hours? There was NO point. Nothing in this movie mattered.
The reason for him was to find the cure, with the cure they could save humanity, those people were confined to a remote location, its not like they were running around carefree.

Last, but certainly not least.... The title of the movie. I Am Legend. What did Will Smith do in this movie that was legendary? What the hell happened in this movie that made him a legend? He did nothing. Nothing was legendary. The character is proven pointless by the end.
He found the cure.

And then for some goddamn reason, Will Smith recites lines form "Shrek" for LITERALLY two minutes... two minutes of just wasting time, when they could be focusing on something IMPORTANT.

Its showing the effect on being alone has done to his mind.

Wow seriously I would say you are just looking for things to pick apart but no in this case I think you are a complete idiot that cannot read into any situation and can only see thing at face value you cant read into any deeper meaning. Please rethink ever posting something similar to this post, you have answered your own questions and contradicted yourself several times.

 

[Midnhtsun]

Yeah. Like the beginning shots of the abandoned New York was almost directly out of 28 Days Later just set in a new location. Also the attack on the house at the end when you just saw them running was pretty 28 Days like too.

1. How else is a movie suppose to establish an empty city? This is a standard type of shot in any apocalyptic movie, 28 wasnt the first and didnt do anything different.

2. So the zombies how were they suppose to attack? It wast the same with 28 days later just like it was any other horror movie.

People seem to think 28 was the only horror movie out there, it was a great movie it set a great tone and mood for the film. But really you guys are reaching saying that it Legend was ripping off or doing the same thing.

 

[DorkyFresh]

I Am Pointless.

i read your whole post, but the part i quoted you on is all you should've posted. it's not as drawn out and fits your rant a lot better.



edit: as for everyone thinking they ripped off of 28 Days later...i'll just call y'all Mr. Fantastic, because your reach is long.

 

[Kanon]

1. How else is a movie suppose to establish an empty city? This is a standard type of shot in any apocalyptic movie, 28 wasnt the first and didnt do anything different.

2. So the zombies how were they suppose to attack? It wast the same with 28 days later just like it was any other horror movie.

People seem to think 28 was the only horror movie out there, it was a great movie it set a great tone and mood for the film. But really you guys are reaching saying that it Legend was ripping off or doing the same thing.

Agree. The only thing that reminded me of 28 days later was the way the title appeared in silence, and that was a stretch too...

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

^Now every movie with a 'last man on earth' type vibe or storyline is going to be compared to that movie, it was the first to do it well in a long time.

But there are only slight similarities in IAL IMO, and these are natural as i mentioned above.

What i REALLY liked about both movies is that they werent over reliant on explosions to tell the story, character came first, and that is always a plus point for me.

If the monstors and last 30 mins would have been better, i truly believe this movie would have been one of the best in a long time.

 

[DorkyFresh]

If the monstors and last 30 mins would have been better, i truly believe this movie would have been one of the best in a long time.

that's why i hope they have an alternate ending for the DVD. you described exactly how i feel. it's a GOOD movie, but it could've been GREAT.

 

[Kanon]

Has anyone seen this?

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=4164

 

[DorkyFresh]

waste of money if you ask me.

 

[StrainedEyes]

I hated the vampires.. They all looked exactly the same. The "alpha" one sort of looked different, but otherwise they had no individuality.

Why he thought completely CGI vampires would be better than prosthetics I have no idea. The only thing they did that a person couldn't do, was stretch their mouths when they screeched.. Which was pointless.

 

[DorkyFresh]

totally agreed Geo. i couldn't tell the alpha vampire from the rest at first. at least using real people would've given the vampires a realistic sense of individuality.

 

[omid17]

I thought the movie would have been much better if it was R