So I saw I Am Legend...
Dec. 27th, 2007 02:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newnumber6Major spoilers behind the cut, both for the movie and for the book that inspired it.
Short version: LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAME.
I knew before I saw it I was going to get more of a remake of the Omega Man rather than an actual adaptation of I Am Legend, but even knowing that, I thought the movie sucked as a whole.
But I'll start off on the good. The early scenes, with Neville wandering through a ruined New York were well done, and I think the changing the locale to NY was a nice choice... didn't drastically affect the _plot_ but really hammered home in terms of the look andthe feel. Will Smith did credibly well, but not spectacularly... he still felt like Will Smith most of the time, rather than a man who's been mostly alone for the past several years. I would have liked to see more haggardness, maybe less care paid to his physical appearance, but it's a minor point.
Now that the good is done, let's go with the bad.
Obviously the 'infected' weren't vampires (or rather vampires-as-zombies) in this case like they were in the book, which is a detriment but not as much a one as you might think to someone who really loved the book. It's something I would have liked, but for a movie I could have done without it.
But man, those infected guys were lame. CGI infected humans is not the way to go. I heard they started with actors in makeup and they looked lame so they went all CGI... I can't imagine any way actors could look more lame than those guys... if they did, you fire your makeup guy and get a new one. Though I suppose part of it was the script and the directing - infected people hopping around and climbing like monster spider-men _might_ look silly with humans (who'd have to use wirework), but that's the kind of thing you should have written around. I'm sure makeup and limited CGI assists would have worked fine with infected people who were more or less human in ability, just savage and violent. So in that case, fire the writer and the director, then the movie might have had a chance. They looked awful and screamed CGI, their bodies (and especially faces) stretching awkwardly like the virus gave them Plastic Man Powers in addition to Spider-Man powers.
Now I mentioned the writing and directing, and so here we go... hordes of humans who are super strong, super fast, rabidly cannibalistic, can't seem to talk or interact with people in any meaningful way, wear rags, but yet somehow are able to track someone who escaped the night before, set _traps_ and use dogs to help their hunting... okay, it's a stretch, but maybe I could buy it if the movie was better. Probably not, though.
Dogs who are infected and will be kept at bay by the tiniest sliver of sunlight? Okay, sure, it was a cool tense moment when a big shaft of sunlight cutting the two shaded areas gave a rapidly dwindling margin of safety, but those last few seconds it just crossed into the ridiculous area.
Which really speaks about the movie as a whole. A nice start but crossed into the ridiculous in the end. Neville is rescued in the middle of the night by a survivor who, instead of doing the sane thing and hiding out until dawn, is driving around because of deus ex machina voice from god telling her how to save the human race. Neville refusing to leave New York despite the rest of the planet being wiped out just because "it's his site"? I mean, at least give some kind of credible, 'I have my equipment here' execution. Likewise, Neville pointlessly sacrificing himself when it's outright mentioned there's room? (Hey, you're supposed to be a genius, right? How about, instead of running into the monsters with the grenade, you pull the pin, take it with you, and leave the grenade outside to blow up the zombies while you huddle in the safe place with the girl and the kid? Does that seem like it might be a smart plan to you? Because I came up with that pretty quickly and I'm _not_ one of the world's smartest microbiologists)
And on the actual ending, a big grrr. I knew they were going to do it, but GRRR it still ticked me off when it actually happened. They rearranged the meaning of the title. Now it's just Hollywood feelgood schlock "Oh yes, he saved us all, and so he is a legend". No, that's not what it's supposed to be. It was supposed to be that, because now the monsters are the dominant race on Earth, with their own society, Neville, a man who sleeps by night and walks by the day, killing mercilessly and leaving bloodless corpses in his wake, is the monster, and, with his death, passes into the status of a legend, like the real vampire once was.
I suppose I wouldn't have minded the movie so much if they called it what it was, a (poor) remake of the Omega Man. Use that title. Or make up something new. Don't tarnish the cool title "I Am Legend" by associating it with that lame by-the-numbers plot and changing the meaning in people's minds.
But seriously, when you make a remake of The Omega Man and the original is better? You're in trouble. Damn this movie sucked.
Vincent Price's The Last Man on Earth remains the best adaptation of I Am Legend. Not perfect, but still the best.
Short version: LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAME.
I knew before I saw it I was going to get more of a remake of the Omega Man rather than an actual adaptation of I Am Legend, but even knowing that, I thought the movie sucked as a whole.
But I'll start off on the good. The early scenes, with Neville wandering through a ruined New York were well done, and I think the changing the locale to NY was a nice choice... didn't drastically affect the _plot_ but really hammered home in terms of the look andthe feel. Will Smith did credibly well, but not spectacularly... he still felt like Will Smith most of the time, rather than a man who's been mostly alone for the past several years. I would have liked to see more haggardness, maybe less care paid to his physical appearance, but it's a minor point.
Now that the good is done, let's go with the bad.
Obviously the 'infected' weren't vampires (or rather vampires-as-zombies) in this case like they were in the book, which is a detriment but not as much a one as you might think to someone who really loved the book. It's something I would have liked, but for a movie I could have done without it.
But man, those infected guys were lame. CGI infected humans is not the way to go. I heard they started with actors in makeup and they looked lame so they went all CGI... I can't imagine any way actors could look more lame than those guys... if they did, you fire your makeup guy and get a new one. Though I suppose part of it was the script and the directing - infected people hopping around and climbing like monster spider-men _might_ look silly with humans (who'd have to use wirework), but that's the kind of thing you should have written around. I'm sure makeup and limited CGI assists would have worked fine with infected people who were more or less human in ability, just savage and violent. So in that case, fire the writer and the director, then the movie might have had a chance. They looked awful and screamed CGI, their bodies (and especially faces) stretching awkwardly like the virus gave them Plastic Man Powers in addition to Spider-Man powers.
Now I mentioned the writing and directing, and so here we go... hordes of humans who are super strong, super fast, rabidly cannibalistic, can't seem to talk or interact with people in any meaningful way, wear rags, but yet somehow are able to track someone who escaped the night before, set _traps_ and use dogs to help their hunting... okay, it's a stretch, but maybe I could buy it if the movie was better. Probably not, though.
Dogs who are infected and will be kept at bay by the tiniest sliver of sunlight? Okay, sure, it was a cool tense moment when a big shaft of sunlight cutting the two shaded areas gave a rapidly dwindling margin of safety, but those last few seconds it just crossed into the ridiculous area.
Which really speaks about the movie as a whole. A nice start but crossed into the ridiculous in the end. Neville is rescued in the middle of the night by a survivor who, instead of doing the sane thing and hiding out until dawn, is driving around because of deus ex machina voice from god telling her how to save the human race. Neville refusing to leave New York despite the rest of the planet being wiped out just because "it's his site"? I mean, at least give some kind of credible, 'I have my equipment here' execution. Likewise, Neville pointlessly sacrificing himself when it's outright mentioned there's room? (Hey, you're supposed to be a genius, right? How about, instead of running into the monsters with the grenade, you pull the pin, take it with you, and leave the grenade outside to blow up the zombies while you huddle in the safe place with the girl and the kid? Does that seem like it might be a smart plan to you? Because I came up with that pretty quickly and I'm _not_ one of the world's smartest microbiologists)
And on the actual ending, a big grrr. I knew they were going to do it, but GRRR it still ticked me off when it actually happened. They rearranged the meaning of the title. Now it's just Hollywood feelgood schlock "Oh yes, he saved us all, and so he is a legend". No, that's not what it's supposed to be. It was supposed to be that, because now the monsters are the dominant race on Earth, with their own society, Neville, a man who sleeps by night and walks by the day, killing mercilessly and leaving bloodless corpses in his wake, is the monster, and, with his death, passes into the status of a legend, like the real vampire once was.
I suppose I wouldn't have minded the movie so much if they called it what it was, a (poor) remake of the Omega Man. Use that title. Or make up something new. Don't tarnish the cool title "I Am Legend" by associating it with that lame by-the-numbers plot and changing the meaning in people's minds.
But seriously, when you make a remake of The Omega Man and the original is better? You're in trouble. Damn this movie sucked.
Vincent Price's The Last Man on Earth remains the best adaptation of I Am Legend. Not perfect, but still the best.
