I Am Legend is a 1954 science fiction novel by Richard Matheson about the last man alive on the planet Earth. It has since been adapted into three films, the most recent of which just premiered and stars will Smith as Robert Neville.
Disclamer: Okay, so before I begin I must absolve Mr. Smith of any wrongdoing in participating in this film. He did the best he could with what he had and his performance made the film halfway decent for the first hour or so.
Review (possible spoilers):
I Am Legend started off as a fantastic novel about the nature of man and monster told in a post-apocalyptic setting. It was one of the first novels to try and explain vampirism using science rather than giving supernatural explanations. It also inspired many now-famous authors, including Stephen King (He just loved the apocalypse-setting).
It has since been made into no less than three shit-tastic films, all of which hate, not because they were necessarily bad, but because each film missed the whole damn point of the book. I had high hopes for this newest incarnation but Smith's I Am Legend is superficial at best, at worst it's like someone took a nice fresh dump all over this masterpiece of fiction.
The first part of the movie actually did try to be somewhat faithful as it captured the loneliness of Neville's character inbetween flashbacks of his dead family. The most interesting element of the film is how he experiments on the diseased mutations in the hopes of finding a cure for the disease.
If you actually do plan on seeing this film, just watch the first hour or so and make up your own damn ending because after that the movie goes downhill like a fat kid on a sled...In the Atlantic.
What starts as a fairly decent film becomes a ripoff of 28 Weeks Later. Literally. Young girl and young boy. Cure found. Hell, the virus is even eventually touted as an infection that increases the victim's aggressiveness. I hate it when films blatantly rip-off of other films, but now we have a new champion.
An adaptation that rips off of a previous film. A film, based on a book that pretends to be another film...There is nothing on planet earth more insidious than that. How about I pretend my drink is a molotov cocktail as I throw it at the damn screen!
Not only did it manage to piss me off in that area but it did the unthinkable. It changed the ending of the book so drastically it became a completely different film.
Let me break it down for my homies: The book's title was referrence to how man had become the stuff of legends like Vampires had been in the past. The movie gave a lame copout, Neville was a legend because he found the damn miracle cure.
You see what I'm getting at about the film being superficial yet?
No?
I'll continue. The book went on to show that Neville had become a monster, in essence like the very thing he was trying to kill. The vampires in the novel had literally created their own society, the only difference being that they couldn't go out in the day. The film takes a more narcissistic approach. Neville is NEVER the bad guy. EVER. And any time he does something deplorable, it's explained away. It feels like you the only thing you can feel for Neville is sympathy. You can never question his motives or actions because in the end they were for the greater good.
The Greater Good...(ahem)
For instance, there is moment when he is saved by two survivors of the plague. They may be the last two human beings on PLANET EARTH. He pulls a gun on them. Then during breakfast they tell him about a sancturary of survivors in Virginnia. He snaps. I mean goes batshit loco. Then makes a funny comment and everything is okay. ( I literally remember the audience breating a sigh and laughing when he cracks the joke)
I Am Legend is legendary in it's amount of bullshit! It couldn't show humanity's ugly side like the book did. I feel it is quite telling about the current generation in that we can't be... Well, bad. We always have to be the good guys.
In the novel, Robert kills the vampires without any real remorse and only at the end does he realize what he has become. In the film, everything he does appears completely justified. No introspection, no horrible realization that the vamp chick he's been experimenting on just MIGHT be the wife of the lead vamp that's been trying to kill him the whole damn movie. Nope nope nope.
Look at the video games of today...Good=Jesus Bad=Hitler. No middle ground, no moral objectivity. Just pure good or pure evil. In this case Neville couldn't be a character of conflicts who does evil for the sake of good. He does mildly questionable things for the sake of ultimate good. You can't sympathize with the vamps in ANY way, especially since they all look like that evil guy from Harry Potter.
It snuffed out all of the tension, conflict, and realism that the novel had been known for.
I give I Am Legend the film 2 out 5.
Read the book. For the love of jesus and dead puppies read the book!
Disclamer: Okay, so before I begin I must absolve Mr. Smith of any wrongdoing in participating in this film. He did the best he could with what he had and his performance made the film halfway decent for the first hour or so.
Review (possible spoilers):
I Am Legend started off as a fantastic novel about the nature of man and monster told in a post-apocalyptic setting. It was one of the first novels to try and explain vampirism using science rather than giving supernatural explanations. It also inspired many now-famous authors, including Stephen King (He just loved the apocalypse-setting).
It has since been made into no less than three shit-tastic films, all of which hate, not because they were necessarily bad, but because each film missed the whole damn point of the book. I had high hopes for this newest incarnation but Smith's I Am Legend is superficial at best, at worst it's like someone took a nice fresh dump all over this masterpiece of fiction.
The first part of the movie actually did try to be somewhat faithful as it captured the loneliness of Neville's character inbetween flashbacks of his dead family. The most interesting element of the film is how he experiments on the diseased mutations in the hopes of finding a cure for the disease.
If you actually do plan on seeing this film, just watch the first hour or so and make up your own damn ending because after that the movie goes downhill like a fat kid on a sled...In the Atlantic.
What starts as a fairly decent film becomes a ripoff of 28 Weeks Later. Literally. Young girl and young boy. Cure found. Hell, the virus is even eventually touted as an infection that increases the victim's aggressiveness. I hate it when films blatantly rip-off of other films, but now we have a new champion.
An adaptation that rips off of a previous film. A film, based on a book that pretends to be another film...There is nothing on planet earth more insidious than that. How about I pretend my drink is a molotov cocktail as I throw it at the damn screen!
Not only did it manage to piss me off in that area but it did the unthinkable. It changed the ending of the book so drastically it became a completely different film.
Let me break it down for my homies: The book's title was referrence to how man had become the stuff of legends like Vampires had been in the past. The movie gave a lame copout, Neville was a legend because he found the damn miracle cure.
You see what I'm getting at about the film being superficial yet?
No?
I'll continue. The book went on to show that Neville had become a monster, in essence like the very thing he was trying to kill. The vampires in the novel had literally created their own society, the only difference being that they couldn't go out in the day. The film takes a more narcissistic approach. Neville is NEVER the bad guy. EVER. And any time he does something deplorable, it's explained away. It feels like you the only thing you can feel for Neville is sympathy. You can never question his motives or actions because in the end they were for the greater good.
The Greater Good...(ahem)
For instance, there is moment when he is saved by two survivors of the plague. They may be the last two human beings on PLANET EARTH. He pulls a gun on them. Then during breakfast they tell him about a sancturary of survivors in Virginnia. He snaps. I mean goes batshit loco. Then makes a funny comment and everything is okay. ( I literally remember the audience breating a sigh and laughing when he cracks the joke)
I Am Legend is legendary in it's amount of bullshit! It couldn't show humanity's ugly side like the book did. I feel it is quite telling about the current generation in that we can't be... Well, bad. We always have to be the good guys.
In the novel, Robert kills the vampires without any real remorse and only at the end does he realize what he has become. In the film, everything he does appears completely justified. No introspection, no horrible realization that the vamp chick he's been experimenting on just MIGHT be the wife of the lead vamp that's been trying to kill him the whole damn movie. Nope nope nope.
Look at the video games of today...Good=Jesus Bad=Hitler. No middle ground, no moral objectivity. Just pure good or pure evil. In this case Neville couldn't be a character of conflicts who does evil for the sake of good. He does mildly questionable things for the sake of ultimate good. You can't sympathize with the vamps in ANY way, especially since they all look like that evil guy from Harry Potter.
It snuffed out all of the tension, conflict, and realism that the novel had been known for.
I give I Am Legend the film 2 out 5.
Read the book. For the love of jesus and dead puppies read the book!
