Stinking it up, badly. (Though she certainly didn’t get any help from the writers.)
Oh yeah?? Oh yeah??? Ever seen Bambi? Huh? Ever see Chronicles of Narnia??? THAT’S yer fake deer and lions for ya right there !!
It was a whollotta compositing. Live, background, weeds and foliage, then animals 1,2 and 3. Let us not forget that the chase footage shot inside of the car as he chased the deer, as well as the big hunt sequence in Times Square that culminates with the lion attack was shot hand-held. No extrapolating moves there, and no programmable dolly shots either. That was frame-by-frame c.g.
Time consuming and pricey.
I expected a bit better on the lion but the deer looked pretty good. They leapt and ran really well. I know. I encounter live deer every 3-5 days where I live. Right up close, too. ]
The translucent masturbatory rabid human-thingies? Awful. From what I could see, the irony here is that the animatronic robot female they built for the lab scenes where he is trying to cure her breathed and appeared to be a better fake job than the c.g. Usually it is the other way around.
We tried to watch it lastnight, but the badness was more than we could take. Did you see that other car zipping around in the background, as Heston was driving at the begining? And the sets looked more like they belonged in a Western.
As for I Am Legend, I enjoyed it. My only complaints, which weren’t enough to ruin it, was that the mutants moved too fast to see clearly. And the CGI lions were too cute.
My brother and I had some fun debating the deer hunt scene.
“Where did the deer COME from? I’m pretty sure Manhatten doesn’t have any native herds of deer!”
“Maybe they broke out of a zoo?”
“The lions, sure, but there must have been a hundred deer! How big IS that zoo?”
“Maybe they just, mated a lot?”
At this point, I failed to come up with a good reply, because I was distracted by the amusing image of a herd of bucktoothed retarded inbred deer galloping along going “DUUUUUURRRRR!” 
Maybe they were a herd of durr? I’ll move on.
Oh, and helicopters. If it’s a monster movie of any kind, don’t get in a helicopter. Things are dangerous enough as it is without throwing in a viral monster apocalypse theme. It’s worth noting that the other helo seemed to spin out of control because of all the people hanging off the side of it. Probably threw the thing off balance and the pilot was struggling to keep it in the air with all the extra weight. Like being in a jetplane in a made-for-tv nature disaster movie.
It didn’t really bother me much that they showed up in Manhatten with all the bridges and tunnels out. How did they get there? I dunno, maybe they took a boat? I don’t think we ever actually see their vehicle when they’re in Manhatten. Also, my dad tells me that AM radio (what Nevile uses to transmit his message) gets some terrific range in the right weather conditions.
You know what bugged me the most? Lieutenant Colonel Neville wore gold oak leaves, the rank insignia for a Major (OK, so I’m in the military and thus would give a shit here). To be fair, I don’t recall if they ever call him “Colonel” in the flashbacks, so it’s possible he could have been promoted after the evacuation. Speaking of how important this guy was, did anyone see the time magazine cover on his fridge? No pressure on his shoulders, no sir.
Back to the deer hunt, his military training would likely have taken him not even as far as you might expect, since he was evidently a medical officer. From what I understand, Doctors and Lawyers in the military have an abbreviated form of basic training, basically just enough for them to know how to operate with and around military people. I doubt he got much on tactics and weapons use.
Also, whatever happened to that Mustang? Probably he just found it somewhere, drove it around like crazy trying to see if he could catch those darned deer, and then parked somewhere. What we see of his diet seems to be powdered eggs, lots of veggies and fruit (how long would fruit stay fresh if it was treated somehow, like the irradiated apples in 28 Days Later?), and maybe some pasta (didn’t see when he was pouring the pasta sauce on the plate). I’m reminded of a joke about what “Vegetarian” means in Navajo.
Did anyone catch the part where he came home with the supplies he had found, compared dates on two jars of pasta sauce, and switched them out? I wonder when that stuff all expired.
Lots of indications that society, such as it was, lived on for a while after the quarantine went up. The apartment Neville explores early on has lots of fliers with handy reminders like “Your dog can go out at dusk… YOU CAN’T” I do like that this movie, like 28 Days Later, doesn’t ever show everyone dying off or becoming infected, but rather just shows the results.
I kinda hoped that Neville would eventually clue in on the intelligence of the nightseekers, but I did like how it showed how unconcerned and detatched he seemed when dealing with them, like the big wall with the pictures of the ones he had killed (in his medical experiments? I didn’t catch whether or not he said there.) Also, my brother pointed out, they go through all the trouble of capturing and curing the girl, and they just leave here there to get taken out along with Alpha Male, Omega Man, and the nightseekers when the grenade goes off.
We saw that things were really going to shit by the time the military started blowing up bridges; it’s a reasonable assumption that they weren’t able to finish the job of isolating Manhattan (and may have given up on that since obviously the virus spread to the rest of the world pretty shortly). That also accounts for the deer. Why do people keep harping on this? It’s not a plot hole, just something that wasn’t specifically explained because it’s not a huge mystery.
I noticed that too, and I’m a civilian. I don’t know why they’re always getting simple stuff like that wrong in movies.
I’ve been amusing myself today thinking about all the ways Neville could survive very comfortably, especially if society didn’t collapse into anarchy right away and he had some qualified help. They didn’t need to show us how he’s got water & electricity, I can work it out myself. Gas & solar powered generators with battery backups, rain barrels on the rooftops, insulated greenhouses here and there, or glass buildings which could be used as greenhouses, he was harvesting corn so he’s got lots of summer vegetables, plus that indoor fish pond he was in - it all seems pretty doable actually.
Given the zombies’ obvious energy needs, I’m kind of surprised there are so many still around. Wouldn’t they have cannibalized each other by now? Anyway, not being a scientist myself and not having the slightest clue as to finding a cure, I’d probably make it my goal to clear Manhattan of zombies. I’d find a nice, secure defensible rooftop, grab some night vision goggles, lay some bait in an open area and spend my evenings snipering zombies.
We actually see the gas powered generators when he first comes home. A whole row of them going “BRBRBRBBRBRBRBRBRBRBRBR!” though I don’t recall ever actually hearing them again after that. I suppose you could say that, since the movie was from Neville’s third-person unreliable narrator POV, that we only noticed it when he first turned them on, and stopped noticing them when he proceeded to ignore what he perceived as normal background noise. I also wonder where Neville gets the fuel for those. Probably he gets some diesel while he’s hand-pumping his gas at the gas station, but I have no idea how much fuel you’d need to provide power for a three story house like that.
My brother and I were wondering where the lions and durr go at night to avoid being killed by the nightseekers, who must take in an awful lot of food to move like that. Also, did you notice that the nightseeker dogs didn’t seem to be much faster/stronger than a normal dog? Well, I guess being as strong/fast as a protagonist dog is supercanine already…
What was really great was watching StarGate SG1 before the Air Force started actively helping with the show. In the first episode, we meet a guy who has both enlisted and officer ranks on his uniform, and various other confusions (nobody actually knows what rank Lieutenant/Major/Lieutenant Colonel Kowalski was, since the three ranks are used at random for him in the movie and show, though the one time I think we hear “Lieutenant” used was in the movie, at a time when Colonel O’Neil was likely just being a dick).
I read a book about Westpoint a few months back, and at one point the cadets were theorizing that the Army intentionally gave movie producers information about the uniforms that were obviously wrong in some small way, to keep enemy forces from infiltrating US military bases with hollywood movies as their uniform guide.
Yeah, the lions and Neville’s car bending around the pole during the attempted suicide were the worst CGI in the film. Other than that, I didn’t have any complaints about the animation.
BTW, I just started reading the book last night, and I’m really enjoying it so far. Heston’s Neville is a fair bit closer to the book’s than Smith’s, although, frankly, I liked Smith’s better and I still picture Neville as Will Smith in my mind. Of course, Will Smith would never agree to play a character who drank away his problems and/or ever had a sexual thought.
As for the book’s vampires, they’re really not like either movie’s. They don’t have a society of any kind–they barely acknowledge each others’ existence except when they kill each other, and they certainly have no concept of teamwork or game theory. The book’s Ben Cortman is like The Omega Man’s Matthias, standing on Neville’s lawn screaming “Come out, Neville!” I have to remind myself not to think of him as the vampire leader, since they don’t have one.
Apologies if this is a repeat; I’ve intentionally avoided the book spoilers.
Yup, experiments. He didn’t say it, but it was clear from the way their pictures were lined up with details about the experiments, the proximity to the table he was working on, and his casual attitude about it.
Nowhere useful, probably. They clearly had not figured out that they should be afraid of the dark, considering that a deer had run right into their nest.
If I remember right, they looked like Honda generators. They would use unleaded gas just like his vehicles. At partial load they could probably run all day on a few gallons each.
Nice, so he’d only need a couple of jerry cans worth then, at least for the house.
Oh, and in response to whoever said the bit with Shrek wasn’t creepy, it’s not that he knew all the lines, it’s the way he did it. Walked into the room seeing the kid watching the movie, and started syncing all the lines exactly, not noticing that the kid and the girl were getting visibly freaked out by it. I sorta took it as Neville no longer picking up on visual cues from people around him that something was wrong.
Oh, and a question for y’all: Scariest part of the movie was the bit where Sam chased the deer into the dark building, and Neville went in after him, despite obviously being scared witless to be there, yes? Probably the one time where I empathized the most with the character, but then, I’m a dog person.
concur, I was sitting in the theater thinking go man get moving come on come on COME ON we gotta get the fuck OUT OF HERE
Soon as the deer ran into the dark doorway, I was like “Oh crap” and then the dog ran in and I was like “SHIT!” :eek: 
Agreed.
Manhattan would have a large (though finate) supply of gasoline/diesel, but how long would it actually last? Granted it’s unlikely Neville would use up the entire supply withing three years, but would it actually remaine usable all that time? Doesn’t gas “spoil” if left sitting for a few years?
I’ve used gas that had been sitting in a jerry can for more than 3 years with no problems.
AIUI, used motor oil can turn volatile after a year or so and can then explode randomly. That may be what you’re thinking of.
Where to start?
I didn’t have high expectations and they were not even met here:
I had never read the book, but somehow I feel that it sucked a lot worse than it should have.
Firstly the special effects were annoying. I’m sick and tired of directors taking the easy way out and going with CGI thinking we won’t notice. Well guess what? I do notice that it doesn’t look real. Sorry. Half of the street scenes looked fake. The zombies looked fake too. I couldn’t stand it.
A great deal of time was devoted to Will Smith’s character finding the cure for the virus. This sort of created an expectation of a bigger payoff than the one we got. What did we get? A cobbled together, last-minute bullshit die for the cause thing. It was so poorly done. I was imagining all of the cool shit that would happen once he got the cure and none of it came true.
Finally, yes, the God and vermont thing. What the hell was that? Seriously? I thought she’d let it go once Neville said that it didn’t exist. I had hoped he was right. God told her? Seriously? And of course she is proven right.
I started to dislike it right after his dog died. That pissed me off. I understand movies that use such situations to portray some meaning, but there was nothing to learn from this movie. No statement about the human condition. This movie tells us nothing about humanity as a whole. It simply uses depressing scenes and hopes that you’ll come out thinking it’s deep. It’s not deep at all. You invest your money and emotions into the beginning, only to find out that in the last 5 minutes the hero finds the cure and finds faith that all will work out in the end. But why is that? No explanation is given.
Oh, god. I saw this movie yesterday and was trying to climb into the back of my seat when Neville is creeping around the dark building and all you can see is the tiny blob of light where he’s holding his hand against the flashlight…and then he takes his hand away and the things are shaking around right in front of him.
I think one of the best things about this movie was the fact that there was no background music to tell you when to start being afraid. It led to a constant state of tense semi-scaredness. “Okay…he’s walking around…alone in the street…something is going to happen, definitely…no, wait, maybe not…oh, god, i don’t know…this is so tense…mannequin moves headOHGODOHGODOHGODattempts to eat one’s way out of movie theater through friend sitting in next seat”
I saw this movie yesterday and thought it was awful.
The same general story line was recently done in Children of Men which I thought was a better movie.