I am Legend (NRR)

"Any thought from those who have seen the movie?"

Yeah, I got one, you are a homo.....

That radio discussion justifies why I don't listen to the radio... sometimes, a movie is just a movie... it doesn't always have to have some relevance to our time...

The movie was alright. 2.5 popcorns out of 4 for me. The primary tiff i have with the movie is that it needed about 10 to 15 more minutes of development on the supporting themes of the movie.

First off, the creatures themselves needed to be described better. What do they do at night? What are they feeding on? What kind of social structure do they have? I think in order to fully appreciate the kind of enemy Neville had, you have to dive into what the enemy is like... and other than the fact that you know they're vampiristic, nothing about them is conveyed in straigtforward enough manner for the audience to accept it. Obviously the creatures want to kill Neville, but they make it seem like they want to kill him strictly because they're mindless survivors looking for anything to eat. In reality, they're more humanistic than this and are trying to get vengence on him for killing their kind and kidnapping their kind. Hence, the alpha male, who in some wierd convoluded way is supposed to address this to viewer by wanting to come out into the day and save the woman who was captured and also tries to catch neville the same way he caught the woman.

secondly, the woman and child are just not explained enought. It's too much of a jump to believe that they can just show up and with 2 lines of dialogue explain why they are there and that they're going to the colony that God told her existed...(I won't even get into the religious conotations in those scenes). I love the fact how Neville is skeptical of them, because in the book, this is a huge part. They could have played that relationship longer and built a more acceptable formation of friendship between the two. Also, she hasn't seen anyone else for 3 years either, aside from the boy, so whats the huge rush to leave right away... it's just kind of all goes downhill fast.

The book on the other hand, takes a much different approach from the movie, and explains many of these holes, albeit in a much different angle. I'd highly recomend the book, as it isn't all that similar to the movie aside from that vampires are trying to kill him and he's the last person on earth. Even the meaning of the Title is completely different... and obviously, the books version is better...

So overall, it was entertaining, but if you go into it expecting a great, thoughtout, thriller, you're only going to get about 2/3rds of what your looking for. Lower your expectations by a bit, and you'll probably have fun, good date movie.

giddy wrote:

Also, she hasn't seen anyone else for 3 years either, aside from the boy, so whats the huge rush to leave right away...

Wrong, she and the boy were aboard a ship of survivors (from Sao Paulo?) that was compromised when they docked. The rush is to get to the colony and away from the bands of monsters, just like any other location.

i thought it was a lot of fun....20-30 minutes too short though...

giddy wrote:

Wrong, she and the boy were aboard a ship of survivors (from Sao Paulo?) that was compromised when they docked. The rush is to get to the colony and away from the bands of monsters, just like any other location.

point taken, but I still think its weak that she can explain herself to him in one line of weak dialogue... why not expand the relationship a bit more before starting the slope down the hill.

I guess my point was that her reasoning and explinations to Neville are pretty terrible as to how she survived and that the whole "god" angle she was bringing into that discussion made me get pretty pumped up that her identity would soon be revealed bringing the mystery of the alpha male type creature to the forefront and explain the creatures behavior towards him.

Thats the point of the movie that it just went south. In the book, she ends up being a vampire that was sent to spy on Neville. She goes on to explain how a group of infected have found a way to hold the virus at bay and are creating a functioning society, although they still have side effects of the virus, like sleeping durring the day and what not. The problem being that Neville kills them all, the infected dead and the people who are infected but still cognative. Thus, Neville is actually looked at as a Legend from the new society. He's seen as the vampire is seen in our society, blindly killing and terrorizing them. In the book, he is captured and executed by the infected living so that they can begin their new society without the fear of Neville killing them. The funny part is that neville has the realization that to them, he's a monster and understands why he must die, so that society can start again. Hence the title of the book.

I guess, after she saved him in the movie, and gave those crockpot answers to him, I was looking forward to seeing the movie play out similiar to the book and just blow the audience away... and instead, it just kind of ended.

I do think that the extended directors cut will probably have the scenes that you guys are talking about from the commercials and an alternate ending in it. Lawrence, the director, has clued that is a possibility on the DVD.

Hence, the first 2/3 rds of the film is great, and then we get denied the great ending from the book...

"Hence, the alpha male, who in some wierd convoluded way is supposed to address this to viewer by wanting to come out into the day and save the woman who was captured and also tries to catch neville the same way he caught the woman."

I thought that perhaps neville got snared in one of his own traps during a bout of delusion due to being the last person on earth (the omega man heard phones ringing.

p.s.

you spelled weird and convoluted wrong.

That's what I thought also, until I thought about how the alpha male unleashed the dogs on him -- he must have been waiting for him.