The title ***I Am Legend ***makes sense in Richard Matheson’s book, but not in Will Smith’s movie.
In the book, the title refers to the hero’s last realizations before he’s killed by the vampires:
The vampires are TERRIFIED of him, far more afraid than he ever was of them.
In a world of vampires, HE’S the monster, and THEY’RE the normal ones!
Long after he’s dead, he’ll be remembered by the vampires, who’ll tell their kids scary stories of the human monster who roamed about in the daytime and put stakes through vampire hearts.
After he dies, he’ll become a legend among vampires.
Quantum of Solace (incidentally one of only two James Bond movies I’ve ever seen in a theatre) has a title that seems simply an attempt to be cool at first glance, but after you’ve watched the entire film and thought about the title, makes a nice, poetic sort of sense. (And yes, I’m aware that the meaning is made clear in the short story from which the title if not the plot is taken.)
Seriously tho, I think that’s part of the reason I have such a hard time with parody now - I thought that movie was dead serious the first 100 or so times I watched it as a little kid. Something like that has to warp your brains.
I submit Super-8 and Chocolat both of which I enjoyed, but didn’t watch for forever based on the titles, and both of which the titles are related to the plot, but not exactly the main point.
October Sky makes no sense other than being an anagram for its source material, Rocket Boys. Apparently they changed it because they though women wouldn’t see a movie titled “Rocket Boys”.
Great choice. Do you know what Cloverfield actually meant? I didn’t catch the reference in the movie, but I wasn’t really paying attention. It really did feel like a left field title.