I Am Legend

[Brandon Hanvey]

I'm fuzzy on the very end of the book, so I can't recall if he takes the pills, or goes to his death by Execution . . but Neville does die to end the book.

I'm guessing that's the change that was made.


In the book, Neville takes the pills so he will feel no pain when the still living execute him.

[IamtheRock3]

I have no idea what the origianl plan was, although it scares me to imagine.

But the new film completly rejects the entire permise of the novel as well as the tragic victory of the ending and replaces it with a stock happy ending that if a person takes even a minute to think about, completly abandons the inner logic of the film itself.

maybe the ending doenst fit with the logic of the BOOK

but does fit with the logic of the movie it was setting up

[Tobias March]

To put a stake through the heart of this whole happy ending thing....the ending of Matheson's book has meaning, in that he discovers he has become a symbol of fear and the destructive past to the new society that emerges. That he is the boogeyman. It's not so much a happy/sad ending as an inevitable one (not to mention that it gives meaning to the title).

However, this is the first adapt to take the name of the book, but it's even further from the source material than the previous two films. Vincent Price's version was tragic. Charleston Heston becomes Christ. Will Smith....suicide bomber? Plus the vombies, as someone called them here earlier, are not intelligent in the same way as the creatures from the books (who could remember their past lives and hate Neville for forcing them to still remember).

Once again lost colony of humans that come out of nowhere...why? It was an airborne virus that swept the world. If it's merely a case of crossing a few county lines to escape, doesn't it seem somewhat ineffective? This is lazy writing (see the butterfly call-back also - a pointless pretense at narrative coherency). Until the end of the book it is a story of one man alone fighting for survival. By the end it is transformed into a story about a man who can't let go of the past and becomes a monster because of it. I would like to see that movie.

[IamtheRock3]

they probably mean that they changed the ending to have Neville die, since he dies in the book.


the main point of the book, is that Neville has become a "Legend" in this new (vampiric) society, because he has become the boogyman -- killing the Vampires/human hybrids.

In the book, Neville IS searching for a cause for the virus (not necessarily a cure, I don't think, but a cause, so he can understand it).

it turns out, that some of the people he has been experimenting on/killing while out each day, were not dead (ie: vampires), but had become a new hybrid of life (a living human/vampire). Therefore, some of whom he was killing were humans.

the vampiric society infultrates his home (using a vampire woman who can exist in the daylight), and capture him to put him on trial for the murders he has comitted.

the vampire woman (a nod in the book in the film by having that latina show up), comes to understand Neville, and gives him drugs to overdose on, so he can take his own life before the mob of vampire/human hybrids executes him.

I'm fuzzy on the very end of the book, so I can't recall if he takes the pills, or goes to his death by Execution . . but Neville does die to end the book.

I'm guessing that's the change that was made.



I am confuse, Were the vamps attacking NON vamps like in this movie. Because I thought for the most part nevill wasnt seeking out fights but trying not to get eaten


probally differnt sense they talk

with "WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING YOU CRAZY HUMAN" being scream by them

[rick]

maybe the ending doenst fit with the logic of the BOOK

but does fit with the logic of the movie it was setting up


Really?

How do you figure?

[IamtheRock3]

Really?

How do you figure?

Well goin by the synopisis I just saw from the book a LOT of the set up that made the book ending good wasnt even there

Wasnt two sets of vamps or vamps hybrids, Nevil had a differnt storyline and backstory, and misson

movie nevil didnt want to leave the town, but COMPLETE the mission, and SAVE everyone, Bring the world from darkness


From What I am told Nevil in the book could give a Rat's A$$ about curing people. Nevil in the movie main thing was trying to cure people. and find that, which fit with the ending. He was less of wild bachelor then Heston the omega man.

the mother and daughter connected to his backstory

Had hints of God and Faith, when the book was differnt from what I heard, Relegion was painted as a tool for the WEAK in the book


now you can say the book was better then the movie, or the movie BUTCHERD the book


but the ending did fit with the movie

[Sean Whitmore]

maybe the ending doenst fit with the logic of the BOOK

but does fit with the logic of the movie it was setting up

Inasmuch as you can apply logic to a narrative where God pops up and tells people to do things for reasons which are left vague.


SEAN

[rick]

Well goin by the synopisis I just saw from the book a LOT of the set up that made the book ending good wasnt even there

Wasnt two sets of vamps or vamps hybrids, Nevil had a differnt storyline and backstory, and misson

movie nevil didnt want to leave the town, but COMPLETE the mission, and SAVE everyone, Bring the world from darkness


From What I am told Nevil in the book could give a Rat's A$$ about curing people. Nevil in the movie main thing was trying to cure people. and find that, which fit with the ending. He was less of wild bachelor then Heston the omega man.

the mother and daughter connected to his backstory

Had hints of God and Faith, when the book was differnt from what I heard, Relegion was painted as a tool for the WEAK in the book


now you can say the book was better then the movie, or the movie BUTCHERD the book


but the ending did fit with the movie


Let’s leave the novel and the two earlier films out of the conversation for now and just talk about the inconsistent inner logic of the film itself.


Didn’t you find it odd in a movie about a man going mad from absolute loneliness that he was only alone during the entire course of the movie for about 5 minutes?

How did the lady know about the camp in Vermont?

Wasn’t the deal with the butterfly more then a little contrived?

Why was it that the “vamps” knew where Neville shopped, where Neville hung-out and what Neville was up to, but had no idea where Neville lived?

Since it was the blood of the people who were immune that was used to come up with the “cure”, why was it crucial for Neville to stay inside the ruins of one of the largest cities in the world, where just the pure numbers of the original residents would guarantee a much larger and more unmanageable population of “vamps”?


I did like this movie, but the weak writing really shows through in a bunch of places.

[Mysterio]

Why was it that the “vamps” knew where Neville shopped, where Neville hung-out and what Neville was up to, but had no idea where Neville lived?

Didn't he "mask" his scent whenever he went into his home with that solution? We never saw him do that at the movie store. That's the only explanation I can come up for it...

[IamtheRock3]

Let’s leave the novel and the two earlier films out of the conversation for now and just talk about the inconsistent inner logic of the film itself.


Didn’t you find it odd in a movie about a man going mad from absolute loneliness that he was only alone during the entire course of the movie for about 5 minutes?

How did the lady know about the camp in Vermont?

Wasn’t the deal with the butterfly more then a little contrived?

Why was it that the “vamps” knew where Neville shopped, where Neville hung-out and what Neville was up to, but had no idea where Neville lived?

Since it was the blood of the people who were immune that was used to come up with the “cure”, why was it crucial for Neville to stay inside the ruins of one of the largest cities in the world, where just the pure numbers of the original residents would guarantee a much larger and more unmanageable population of “vamps”?


I did like this movie, but the weak writing really shows through in a bunch of places.


He was basicly Alone, accept for a DOG, who he TREATED like a kid, cause he already clearly lost his mind at the start of the film. The Dog was the only thing holding him to his small grasp of sanity, and when that went away, he tried to to off himself

Dog doesnt count as close companio...if it was true, he wouldnt be trying to make moves on a maniquin

The lady I assume heard about it on the ship, Will seem to know about it, but yea that could be explain more


Butterfly thing may be a bit contrive, but hey stuck with the GOD IS AWESOME idea through the movie, which was through the whole movie. Now you can say the MOVIE faulted, but the ending still fit with the movie

why he stayed to new York. Cause it was his mission. Remember his family ask him to leave but he was very stubbornly clear that he will stay it out and FIX this, and he refuse to beleave it was any other way

[kalorama]

Once again lost colony of humans that come out of nowhere...why? It was an airborne virus that swept the world. If it's merely a case of crossing a few county lines to escape, doesn't it seem somewhat ineffective?

This was addressed explicitly (and convincingly) in the film. The virus didn't survive in the mountains of Vermont because the air was too cold to sustain it (but, unlike other extremely cold climates, like Antarctica, it wasn't too cold to suitably and easily sustain human life). Most likely there were other settlements of humans in similar climates.


Why was it that the “vamps” knew where Neville shopped, where Neville hung-out and what Neville was up to, but had no idea where Neville lived?

There's no evidence that they knew either of those things. They could have simply stumbled across the mannequins in the video store and (as we've discussed at length previously) still retaining some significant level of human reasoning, understood that the only way the mannequins could have gotten there was for Neville to put them there. That being the case, it's not a stretch to figure out that if they moved them somewhere else where he might see them there'd be a chance he'd investigate. Thus the trap. It may well have been that they'd encountered him previously outside the building where he set the trap and figured it was part of his "hunting ground." Or they could have just set the trap randomly, hoping he'd come across. Maybe they set several other ones as well, but that was the only one he tripped over..

[Tobias March]

You're a contrary sort of fellow aren't you? Right so, I guess if films like this and AVP-R pass muster, we have nobody but ourselves to blame for the quality of film/screenwriting.

I guess Akiva is the voice of our time.

[bert]

I am confuse, Were the vamps attacking NON vamps like in this movie. Because I thought for the most part nevill wasnt seeking out fights but trying not to get eaten


probally differnt sense they talk

with "WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING YOU CRAZY HUMAN" being scream by them

in the Novella, the vamps/hybrids spend the entire night trying to get Neville (to eat him), including his neighbor who spends most of the book screaming for NEVILLE! to come out.

meanwhile, Neville spends the days fixing up his house from the previous night's attack, stocking up on supplies, and killing the vamps he can find -- all the while searching for where his neighbor is hiding during the day.

yes, he does "kidnap" a few vamps to test his thory on how the Vampirism/virus works. . but he's not trying to save anyone (his wife and daugther are long dead by the time the novella opens).

[kalorama]

You're a contrary sort of fellow aren't you? Right so, I guess if films like this and AVP-R pass muster, we have nobody but ourselves to blame for the quality of film/screenwriting.

I guess Akiva is the voice of our time.

Or, conversely, some people just have a different opinion on the movie than you. And that's okay.

[Tobias March]

Perhaps, but then it is my opinion that the quality of screenwriting has degenerated in recent years to an astounding degree.

As I write this I am watching LOTR, which took many liberties with the text, but remained entertaining and broadly faithful to its source material. Goldsman has adapted three properties I was familiar with before they're being made into films: Hellblazer, I, Robot and I am Legend - none of which were similar to their original forms and each of which could easily have been released as new films without the 'based on/inspired by', credit. Whatever my opinion on these films may be, I don't understand why this is the case.

For example I just saw a great film from 1985 called The Quiet Earth. I strongly recommend it. It also features a man finding himself alone on earth and quickly going mad. However, it is only 90 minutes long and yet manages to be one of the most beautiful and understated sci-fi films I have ever seen. It also pulls no punches with the idea of the protagonist going mad. Now see why this little known film can do that and a movie written by an Oscar winning screenwriter can't, I don't rightly comprehend.

[jesse_custer]

Whether or not the monsters knew where the protagonist hung out or lived is irrelevant to the traps. There's no reason for a viewer to believe they're capable of setting traps because they jostled and tottered about like retarded cattle on PCP.

[Royal]

It's managed to stay in print for 50 years and be made into a film three times, so it might just have something going for it.

But hey, if you prefer your stories to be a bit simple more power to you.

Four actually.

Technically five.

Sorry. Picky.

[rick]

Four actually.

Technically five.

Sorry. Picky.


Are you counting Night of the Living Dead?

And I guess the kung fu one sort of counts.

[howyadoin]

Yeah, Big Willy hit the POUUUUUUNNNNNNNNCCCCCCCCCWEEEEEEEEEEEEE..........P ERIOD!"Hit the pouncwe"? Is that anything like "gets to my ones"?




At any rate, I just came back from the movie. Interesting as a popcorn flick, as others have said. But definitely not without flaws. I like the idea that the mutants could be smart enough to use strategy (i.e., the trap that Neville was caught in), but let's face it: any primate dumb enough to use it's own very-fragile head as a battering ram wouldn't have the intelligence to understand basic physics, or even to mimic human behaviour.

[DWEarhart]

From Arrow in the Head:


I AM... not surprised... According to ShockTillYouDrop, Author Richard Matheson has signed off on all sequel rights to his story for I AM LEGEND, meaning that Warner Bros. has every right to look at the Box Office charts, see that it has already made $335 million worldwide in under a month, and decide that they'd be stupider than their own film's ending if they didn't make a follow-up to the damn thing.

This is all the info STYD has provided - obviously no story details are available at the moment. I think this would be a great time, however, for CGI work to commence, since there's no excuse for some of I AM LEGEND'S effects. Just assume there's going to be hundreds of pouncing weirdos climbing up a building or some such nonsense and get to work on it ASAP, lest these things continue to look like characters from MADDEN FOOTBALL.

Comingsoon.net is also reporting this.

Good for Matheson. Though should any sequels actually emerge I probably won't be checking them out.

[Sabrinaset]

Or, conversely, some people just have a different opinion on the movie than you. And that's okay.

God bless you, Kalorama. And no, that's not snark.

[Sabrinaset]

Oh, and I forgot to add ... regarding the movie, I walked away thinking, well, geez ... you really think they're gunna keep coming for you, Colonel, but the zombies will let the woman and kid escape? Heck, just toss the grenade through the hole, duck into the chimney, and you're home free!

I'm not even gunna try and figure oput how that lil boy managed to survive in a world like that.

There WERE quite a bit of plot holes in the movie. I still enjoyed it, but it really could have been done better.

[Tobias March]

From Arrow in the Head:



Comingsoon.net is also reporting this.

Good for Matheson. Though should any sequels actually emerge I probably won't be checking them out.

Hey soon the Matheson estate will be raking it in just like Tolkien's grandkids! Cool.

[IamtheRock3]

http://herochat.com/forum/index.php/topic,160486.0.html

A sequel?

[The Xenos]

http://herochat.com/forum/index.php/topic,160486.0.html

A sequel?

Why does that link have to do with anything? Plus it looks like one of the stupidest forums I've ever seen. I'm glad CBR doesn't allow banners, especially giant vertical images like that.

[IamtheRock3]

Why does that link have to do with anything? Plus it looks like one of the stupidest forums I've ever seen. I'm glad CBR doesn't allow banners, especially giant vertical images like that.


cut and pasted the wrong link


http://www.darkhorizons.com/news08/080104c.php

[stu-el]

if any body has seen I AM LEGEND why was there a huge Batman/Superman poster at the very begining.

[Choppa]

Yeah I saw it, still don't know what it means. Maybe WB knows something that we don't.

[Libaax]

A random ad for their upcoming movie of course.


There have been talk about Supes/Batman movie for a long time now.

[Choppa]

So they got The Dark Knight, Superman: The Man of Steel, JLA, and a Batman/Superman movie?

I've never even heard of it.

[ClarkKent89]

Warner Bros. loves cross-promotion. It was just a little tip of the hat to their biggest DC franchises.

Did any one else notice the Green Lantern and Teen Titans poster in the background of the movie store in I Am Legend?

[metalhead_dave743]

It's just a joke from Akiva Goldsmith. He put it in there for kicks, nothing more.

[elise]

It's just a joke from Akiva Goldsmith. He put it in there for kicks, nothing more.
Aww, poo. I've been hoping for a while that they'd make a Superman/Batman movie.

[Choppa]

It got scrapped for Batman Begins and Superman Returns. And the director they had lined up went and did Troy instead.

[Bat-Reader]

I believe If they do, it will ruin what Nolan build in his movies.

[michaeljsmith]

It's just a joke from Akiva Goldsmith. He put it in there for kicks, nothing more.

There was a write up a couple of weeks ago and Goldsmith said he thought it would be really funny since the movie has been talked about forever but will likely never happen.

[OverMaster]

There was a write up a couple of weeks ago and Goldsmith said he thought it would be really funny since the movie has been talked about forever but will likely never happen.

Hopefully not with Akiva Goldsmith writing. He can't write superheroes to save his life.

[Madama Butterfly]

An inspired movie with a sucky, uninspired ending. Shame on the wasted potential...

[The Xenos]

It's a pretty sick joke if you ask me. The asshat that wrote I Am Legend was also the same asshat that did Batman and Robin and Batman Forever. I don't know how this asshat is still working in Hollywood, nevermind allowed to do adatpations, nevermind winning a damn Oscar. Also.. asshat.

[RazorBats79]

Not much of a thread I know, but I thought I would point out that during some scenes from I am legend (great flick), Will Smith is hunting deer with his rifle and Mustang GT500 or on foot. And at one point he's standing next to a theater, where a huge billboard sign of a Superman/Batman logo hangs. The one with Supermans "S" inside Batman's bat. Except it was the "S" from Superman Returns costume.
The movie also has The Dark Knight trailer on it.
Coincidence?

Apologies for the repost. I did a search before hand that came up empty. Old news then..

[The Xenos]

Actually, yeah, I'd say it's more of a coincidence. If anything, it is more so they're both owned by the same studio, Warners. Pretty much they looked for a possible movie set in the near future, so they did a mock up of that. This has been posted before, I think it at least the Batman board.

Of course, I find it a bad joke myself. A movie written by the guy who killed the Batman franchise with Schumacher's films has a Batman reference in it? Blah.

[Ben Morgan]

Yeah, I mentioned that here before

[howyadoin]

Not much of a thread I know, but I thought I would point out that during some scenes from I am legend (great flick), Will Smith is hunting deer with his rifle and Mustang GT500 or on foot. And at one point he's standing next to a theater, where a huge billboard sign of a Superman/Batman logo hangs. The one with Supermans "S" inside Batman's bat. Except it was the "S" from Superman Returns costume.
The movie also has The Dark Knight trailer on it.
Coincidence?Congratulations, you're the tenth poster to mention this.



Tell him what he's won, Johnny!

[RazorBats79]

Like I said, the search came up empty. And I had posted this in the DC forum.
But thanks for taking the time to answer anyway!

[Slappy san]

That was back when the script was almost a total balls-out action movie. It was actually a good script (although it was nothing like the book) and could have been Arnold's best since T2. Picture the 3rd act of PREDATOR, and you'd be close.


Read that script atleast 8 years ago and wish it had been made.

[Deathstroke]

I watched the movie last night and I have to say that while I've never read the book, I came away relatively unimpressed with the story.

Just didn't seem like there was a whole lot there.

One of the things that kind of bothered me with the film is how the infected humans were monstrous in all respects but seemed to still have the ability to reason a coordinated attack plan. Didn't seem to fit with the rest of the effects of the disease that turned them in the first place.

[Brian "Vash" Ashby]

It interesting that in this movie the acting got worse when more characters showed up.

Crap ending.