CibbuanoI Am Legend
January 22nd 2008 22:07
It's an old story, adapted from the novel of the same name, written by Richard Matheson; published in 1954, the novel would be remade twice before Will Smith took hjis turn - in the 60s as "The Last Man on Earth" and in the 70s as "The Omega Man".
I Am Legend, the novel, is widely acknowledged as being the inspiration for the cinematic constructions of the zombie movie and the post-apocalyptic scenario.
We need to ask the question: was there a need to adapt this movie, yet again?
I'd have to emphatically say "NO!".
"I Am Legend" is a movie of wants. It wants to be a smart movie. It wants to set up Will Smith as an actor that can carry a movie on his own. It wants to scare us when we realize that NYC has been overrun by ghouls, it wants us to feel sorry for the dog and it wants us to feel hope at the end. The trailer makes the movie look a lot more cerebral than it actually is:
To me, it's all butchered into an extravagant waste of money, using the structure of the novel to give us hackneyed action scenes and dull moments of tension. What does the Fresh Prince have to say?
"'There's a sweet spot I've been chasing in my career,'' says Smith. ''Gladiator, Forrest Gump — these are movies with wonderful, audience-pleasing elements but also uncompromised artistic value. I Am Legend always felt like it had those possibilities to me.''
Don't get me wrong - I love the scenario... post-apocalyptic fiction brings up interesting themes of isolation, survival and the questioning of the purpose of living. From the excellent Romero zombie movies, to the comic books, Y:The Last Man and The Walking Dead, there's no end of artists thinking about it.
There's a lot of CGI in this movie, and it looks awful, in my opinion. Even the wildlife is computer generated, and it lacks the grace of natural animals, destroying the magic.
Even though the 'infected' ghouls were played by actors in makeup, the director replaced their images with CGI and the results are truly half-baked; moving at super-speed, with long, rubbery faces, the ghouls are laughable as an enemy and not at all frightening. From the New York Times review, the director was quoted:
“We just weren’t able to get out of people what we really wanted,” he said. “They needed to have an abandon in their performance that you just can’t get out of people in the middle of the night when they’re barefoot. And their metabolisms are really spiked, so they’re constantly hyperventilating, which you can’t really get actors to do for a long time or they pass out.”
Unfortunately, the final effect was to diminish the story... as Roger Ebert wrote:
"...and how, I always wonder, do human beings in all their infinite shapes and sizes mutate into identical pale zombies with infinite speed and strength?"
There are just so many thing I despised about this movie, and I had to force myself to finish it, though I would have preferred washing the dishes or trimming the angry vines that threaten to obscure my front door.
Yes, I'm living in my own mini-apocalyptic world. If I go one day without cutting back the insidious tendrils, they'll snake across the stairway and wrap themselves around the handrail. If the world were to perish, me along with it, the vine would worm its way in through the door and ransack my kitchen, I'm sure. In the end, this bastard vine is a much more frightening foe than any number of ghouls in "I Am Legend".
I say: I try not to watch movies like this. My complaints in bullet form: unnecessary flashbacks, hamfisted religious talk, traps that make no sense, virology that makes little sense, CGI lions, CGI ghouls, ineffective depiction of loneliness.
See it for: One thing that was supremely well-done: they shot footage of New York and digially removed the people, creating the illusion of a familiar city, totally abandoned.
*this image is from IMDb
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Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
Someone would have to tie me to a chair, prise my eyes open and push my ears forward... no way..
Comment by Aimzster
Health and Beauty
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The Jeepney Stop
First Time Mum
Comment by Cibbuano
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Aimzster, the attraction to post-apocalyptic scenarios is, to me, the examination of the survivor's ability to regain their footing in a new world, and their relationships with people around them.
Will Smith did a passable job, but I didn't find him spectacular.
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
You never said it sucks in words but your body language to us what you meant.
Honestly I would mark this down as the most unnecessary remake ever. Omega Man was a much better script and the low budget 28 Days Later had better zombies. Will Smith was fighting to convince the audience that his rational was not nuts. 'I stayed here because it was ground zero.' What the...? And the zombies were selectively brain dead. Suicidally stupid but smart enough to set traps. Hit head on wall now... Perhaps it was just a victim of the writers strike or a committee wrote it based upon a survey. Either way it made no sense.
Comment by Cibbuano
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Yes, we didn't need this remake. I blame the hacks, Goldsman and Lawrence.
Comment by Miswanderlust
Killer Beats
Ramble On
Hipnotherapy
Now I am convinced that I am going to give this movie a pass!
Mis
Comment by Ahmed
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
Cinema Three
and it bloody well succeeded! Everyones like 'give will smith a best actor award he deserves it' but really, it's the dog, the dog carried the m ovie on his noble shoulders, the dog deserves the best actors. I don't care what anyone says, that dog carried out the best performance in recent memory and it deserves an award in recognition.
So damn all the debates about what the movie is or isn't about because the dog is the key actor here, the dog is what the movie is about.
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
This sounds dreadful. How can they do that???
I wish Ridley Scott had managed to get it made, it went into pre-production in the 90s, but stalled, and was shelved.
I love your plant spit btw, very funny.
Comment by Michaelie
Flick Wit
Cibb - you know what I thought of it. Not much.
Michaelie
Comment by Cibbuano
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Ahmed, yeah, the dog rocks. The CGI dogs, not so much.
Bryn, I'm definitely keen to get the book. Classic SF is too good to pass up. I read the same thing about Ridley Scott - I bet he would have knocked it out a little better.
Michaelie, post a link to your review here!
Comment by Michaelie
Flick Wit
I'll put a link to yours on mine though, for what it's worth to you!
Comment by Cibbuano
20/20 Filmsight
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Comment by Theresa
Today's World
Borderless World
Penny Smart
Shoot. I was looking forward to this....
Well, I'll let you know what I think when it comes out on dvd....
Theresa
Comment by d4rkn3ss