"I Am Legend"
Last night I took my wife and youngest daughter out for dinner and a movie (it's hard to believe just how much that ended up costing [:(!]). When I was growing up here in Southern California one of my favorite novels was I Am Legend, a story of one man from SoCal left alone in a world suddenly inhabited by vampires. That same novel was made into the films The Last Man On Earth and The Omega Man. Without doing a full movie review I will say that the film disappointed me. Will Smith's preformance was very good but IMHO he was not well cast for the role of Robert Nevelle. The special effects were well done and the scenes of Manhatten being deserted and over grown with weeds were remarkable considering the technical issuse involved and the computer graphics needed to accomplish this feat. Smith's German Shepard was a real scene stealer and I think I enjoyed her performance more than his! Those were the film's good points. The creatures of the night were nearly all computer generated and frankly they were not even scarey looking, at least not to anyone over the age of 6, and they looked more like Spiderman as they went running and jumping around. Although these things were supposed to be flesh eating beasts, I don't recall them actually eat anything other than a deer that they captured and even that was not shown in any sort of graphic detail. They did spend a lot of time wailing and growling, but that was more humorous than frightening.
The final part of the film was a silly shootem up and the ending was hokey and designed to bring a tear to your eye but I left feeling cheated. This film was nothing at all like the novel which terrified me as a young boy with the visions of vampires nightly assualting Neville's house while the head vampire, who was once his neighbor and best friend, constantly called out his name while female vampires paraded around naked in an attempt to seduce him out of the house in order to kill him; and he nearly went mad with the idea of capturing and having just one of them. Also eliminated through a rewrite of the film was his dear wife dead and buried and then returning to his home as a vampire now hungering for his blood! There were also no horrorable images of the enormous mass graves from the book where tens of thousands of bodies were being burned daily as the last hope of stamping out the spread of the disease and the rise of more vampires. I give the film 2-1/2 stars on the Kristov scale, which means wait for the DVD to come out.
The final part of the film was a silly shootem up and the ending was hokey and designed to bring a tear to your eye but I left feeling cheated. This film was nothing at all like the novel which terrified me as a young boy with the visions of vampires nightly assualting Neville's house while the head vampire, who was once his neighbor and best friend, constantly called out his name while female vampires paraded around naked in an attempt to seduce him out of the house in order to kill him; and he nearly went mad with the idea of capturing and having just one of them. Also eliminated through a rewrite of the film was his dear wife dead and buried and then returning to his home as a vampire now hungering for his blood! There were also no horrorable images of the enormous mass graves from the book where tens of thousands of bodies were being burned daily as the last hope of stamping out the spread of the disease and the rise of more vampires. I give the film 2-1/2 stars on the Kristov scale, which means wait for the DVD to come out.
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sounds like a good book though. 0 -
Thanks for that, as I had kinda been wanting to break our at home run for a real theater movie - guess it'll have to wait for a better opportunity.
Nicely written review!0 -
Nice review. I'll still problay go see it. I have a free pass to the movies, and nothing to do now that school is done. I need to read that book though. The movies are rarely as good. 0 -
Thanks for the read Kristov, Your review sounds just like all of the other I have read. The only people that seemed to liked it are the movie critics. 0 -
I am going to go see it next week. The ending in the book was a disappointment. But I still think it will be a good watch. 0 -
If I get the chance, I'm going to see it. Will Smith is hot.[}:)][}:)] 0 -
What do you expect anymore?
Most films are made for 13-18 year olds today!
Too bad - $10 a ticket could buy you a lot of
penny candy!
[:D]0 -
thanks for the info I had planned to seeit as my yearly night at the movies, but I shall pass and wait for a more well reported movie< i really liked the book and had high hopes.
Again thanks0 -
It began well enough, the deserted scenes were cool, as was deer hunting with an AR-15 and a Shelby mustang.
Kinda reminded me of those scenes of hunting buffalo, except instead of riding a horse, your driving a mustang, and instead of a bow and arrow, is an AR-15/M-16.
They completely changed his "legend", the end was dissappointing.
Also, how the heck did pale guys with no tools get through steel baracaded doors so easily?
How does just a sliver of sunlight keep them at bay in one scene, the UV lights burn skin as well as sunlight in another scene, but then in other scenes, his massive UV floodlights do absolutely nothing.
Where was that Girl at on the docks all night, how did she stay safe, did her simple flare make enough light to scare away the infected?
If the first human you saw in three years was a woman that looked like that.... would you really be reciting shrek lines, or get to work repopulating the planet?0 -
quote:
If the first human you saw in three years was a woman that looked like that.... would you really be reciting shrek lines, or get to work repopulating the planet?
And of course he was all bent out of shape when she fried up his last package of bacon while cooking breakfast for him!0 -
I hadn't realized it was based on a book. I will likely go to the library and simply read the book. 0 -
The authors name is Richard Matheson and he also wrote the screen play to the TV movie Duel and some Twilight Zone episodes. The book I Am Legend is about 300 pages long and I'll bet that once you start reading you'll finish it in just a couple of days. 0 -
I think I will wait to rent it and see what it's like. 0 -
Saw it, and had the following observations:
a. NOT the best Zombie movie. . .not even close, though I liked the scene with Smith gunning his Mustang through a deserted Manhattan and hunting deer with an M16.
b. Story was weak. Poor story arc, and most of the movie Smith is talking to his dog.
c. Ending was terrible and made no sense.
I give it two out of four stars.
Frankly, I'd say it isn't worth a rental unless you have a great home theater setup, because most of the fun of the movie is seeing the FX on the big screen.0 -
I like it. It was done is such a way the it could happen in real life. It wasn't what I expect it. Will Smith's character wasn't quite right in the head, but he had been alone for a long time and witness the end of mankind.
There are parts in the movie that would never happen in real life, one being one of the infected people having a couple of dogs. Wouldn't the dogs eat him up? But hey it's a movie and over all I thing it was well done and overall very believeable.
Since most of you are men on here. You may not have realized that Will Smith is hot!!0 -
I watched on one of those free online sites and I think I pd about what it was worth which was my time only [:D][:D][:D] 0 -
Could be fun to see any of the GB members with 2500 posts or above be cast for this movie - as they're clearly better equipped than Will Smith.
[;)]0 -
Betcher ass !!
Doug0 -
I liked the movie for the most part. found the ending was not what I would have liked. Watched it for free online. I give it two stars. 0 -
Just saw it last night, awesome movie. I dont know about you guys, but ive often dreamed, (fantasized) about being the last person on earth. Driving through the deserted city in the GT500 Mustang was awesome. Go see it, and make up your own mind, i read this and was bummed about thinking it would not be that good, but i saw the movie and was pleasently surprised it was a good movie. 0 -
I'd say it was an OK movie. Not great but OK. To be honest I liked Omega Man better. Of course that didn't have all the great computer graphics but Heston was great in it. I don't think it is a total waste of money for people to see, it just could have been better. 0 -
great, just another walking dead movie.[xx(]
heck...just walk around nyc and you can see that now and not have to rent a movie.[B)]0
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