Because lying on her back finally got her an acting job.
No, I meant that her role was one that didn’t even need an actor for it, I assumed it was a CGI effect or somesuch. I don’t know that she would have even been recognizable. Perhaps I was snarky. She’s been in more movies than I have, so I guess I can’t poke fun at the thinness of her resume.
Ha! She hasn’t been in as many movies as I have!
Of course, mine were for high school credit, while she probably got a little bit more out of her performance.
Was I the only one very annoyed by the Shrek display? It got a clever use, but I still felt it was cheap advertising.
Well, this movie was starring Will Smith
Chalk up another three folks, here at my place, annoyed by the tacked-on God ending.
Given how quickly the zombie virus changed his dog one can only assume zombies were around while he was the only uninfected left in Manhattan. So how did he have the breathing space to set up his elaborate home with all its defenses - the shutters, exploding cars, lights, generators, lab, and all that? They must have taken weeks at least to complete. Why didn’t they get him on the very first night?
Eh, and I am apparantly the only person in the world who wasn’t annoyed by a sci-fi film that suggested that FedEx and US Robotics would still exist in the future.
Wasn’t the syncing-with-movie-dialogue a thing from one of the old movies too?
They didn’t know where he lived until after the dock fight, at least as far as Neville knew, and depending on how rapidly things went pear-shaped in Manhatten, much of the preperation might have been done before the government/military presense on the island disappeared entirely.
It didn’t seem that it was the first time Dr. Emma’s research was being publicized, so much as an in-depth interview after the fact. They did make Dr. Emma state the findings as if it were the first time anyone has ever heard of it, but that seems to be quite common in interviews; the interviewer has to elicit those basic facts (that most well-informed folks are aware of) so as to not alienate the sizable portion of the viewing audience who only pay attention to one or two news stories a week outside of Britney Spears’ latest adventures.
That scene seemed wrong too. It would have made sense if, for some reason, “Shrek” was the only DVD left on Earth. But, in fact, we saw that he regularly visited the video store to check out and return films. I know he says, “I like ‘Shrek.’” I like “Shrek” too, but with many DVDs available, I wouldn’t watch it so often that I could recite the dialog in sync with it. Maybe if I were 8 years-old.
Of all the things to criticize in the movie, that one seems the least defensible. Are you saying the Robert Neville character didn’t love the movie Shrek? Why is that hard to believe? It’s a light upbeat movie, it’s set in fictional storybook land and has no real people in it, so it doesn’t remind Neville of his old life.
No, no. I get that he loved it. There are movies I love too, but I can’t quote them in perfect sync when I watch them, even though I have seen them many times. Maybe I’m just not as good at that particular skill as Neville was supposed to be, so it seemed off to me.
Really? When I was a kid I saw the original Star Wars 100 times and I could definitely lip-sync it. When I was older I saw Bladerunner many, many times and I think I can still lip-sync it pretty well.
Remember too, he had a daughter and you know how kids are. If Shrek was his daughter’s favorite movie it’s very possible he watched it 100 times with his daughter before humanity fell. I know when I was caring for my niece & nephew I must have seen The Little Mermaid and Hercules about 100 times and knew the dialogue far better than I ever wanted to.
I was going to wait for this to come out on Netflix but found myself outside of a theater that was showing it and thought, “what the heck.” I was satisfied with the many positive reviews I heard and read about and figured I wouldn’t be let down.
The movie was fine, especially Will Smith’s acting. However, I would have appreciated it more if it had a different title. If they called it “Omega Man” or “Last Man on Earth” with just a credit at the beginning saying: Inspired by Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend would have been just fine. But to name it after Matheson’s excellent novel and then to get the whole spirit of the story so terribly wrong just annoys me. If this story took place, and the world is once again repopulated, Dr. Neville would be a hero, a great hero. But he wouldn’t be a legend. According to my Merriam-Webster’s, a legend is something from the past that is considered “historical but not verifiable.” A legend is a sort of historical myth, where certain events and abilities are exaggerated or even created outright. George Washington is not a legend; Napoleon is not a legend. (Charles Barkley might like to brag that he’s a legend but he actually isn’t.) Vlad Tepes is a legend; King Arthur is a legend. Jesus Christ could be considered a legend by the non-religious.
Vlad Tepes probably was a cruel ruler who did all of those terrible things we read about, but there might be a bit of exaggeration too. And then there is his literary counterpart, Count Dracula, the legendary vampire with fangs and the turning into bats and commanding wild creatures. I don’t think George Washington is ever mentioned as being able to do all those things. In this case, Vlad Tepes/Dracula equals legend; George Washington equals national hero.
Neville becomes a legend not by us but by the new masters of society. These are the people that will be telling their children stories of the villanious creature that slept in the night in his fortified castle and went around in the sunlight and killed our people; the sunlight did not bother this monster and he was able to roam around supernaturally, with all sorts of powers and satanic influences.
Again, the movie was fine on its own, at least until the woman and the boy show up by God’s grace and save the day. Smith put on a good performance of a man losing his sanity. However, when I hear those last few words, that this story is Neville’s “legend,” I know for a fact that the people involved in making the film don’t know what a legend even is but are too busy coming up with a fresh new interpretation of something that needs no re-interpretation. Neville is a legend for the facts stated above; either get the ending right or change the name of the movie, but don’t try to re-write a classic.
Total agreement here. I just sat in the theater, dumbfounded, after that horriblly mangled interpretation. “Re-imagining” stories for the big screen can be fine IF the rewrite improves or enhances the story; in this case it made the movie nearly unrecognizable as an adaptation of Matheson’s story and deprives it of the unique aspects that would have separated it from the 28 Days/Weeks Later-type movies. Bad form!
Consider that with three years with nobody but his dog to keep him company, Dr. Neville had the time to watch whatever movies he liked enough times to memorize the dialogue of at least a handful of them, especially his favorite scenes–and the scenes he recited were especially fitting for his situation, just like that Bob Marley song (Don’t worry/about a thing/cause every little thing/gonna be alright).
Excellent post; I agree wholeheartedly.
There is an alternate ending which I just watched, and which, presumably will be on the DVD release of “I Am Legend” which answers the question of whether or not ALL the bridges to Manhattan Island were destroyed. Assuming alternate endings are releveant to the film proper, that is.
Since it’s an alternate scene, I’m not going to spoiler the info. In this version Will Smith’s character realizes, during the basement siege, that the alpha male zombie only wants his girlfriend back. Smith rolls the gurney she is on out of the glassed-in area and, amongst the zombies, injects her with something which revives her. The main zombie then picks her up and carries her away and his buddies follow. We next see Smith’s character leaving Manhattan in a car via a bridge with the woman and young boy. We hear a voice-over of the woman imploring other survivors to, “Keep your radio on. Listen for our broadcasts. You are not alone. There is hope.”
Seriously?! Why didn’t they use that ending in the theatrical version, instead of that butterfly nonsense? Well, I suppose this redeems the movie a little bit.
If there’s a version that uses the alternate ending, deletes all scenes that reference butterflies, and they also toss the whole God conversation in the kitchen, then maybe I’d buy it on sale or used.
I thought this thread was dead, so I was staying out, but since it came back. . .
I just finished the book. I haven’t seen the movie. As others in the the thread mentioned, that is one cool story, and a very quick read. The book they’re hawking these days with Will Smith on the cover is actually a collection of stories. Legend only takes up about a third of the book.
Very interesting to imagine the outside society, and their thoughts about him and consequently, the notion of what makes Neville a legend – which is infinitely more interesting in the book than the movie (my wife has seen it).
A legend alright, like Frankenstein, Dracula, the Boogieman…