I Am Legend

... and the discussion ended quietly with no one the wiser.

By the way, forget ANY of my allusions to racism in "I am Legend", I just discovered that Charlton Heston (!) played the first hero in the first movie based on the book. That movie was called "The Omega Man" . (1972?)

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r66-The member who always asks WHY?

kool

Vincent Price played the lead before Chuck in The Last Man on Earth. There's even a link on site where you can watch that movie free and legally.

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What a great first post.

Hahahahahahahaha.

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Hey meat tard, you want to act like a child and give me neg rep because I asked you a question. That's fine. I was going to have a discussion with you. Now, not so much.

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We are both the source of the problem and the solution, yet we do not see ourselves in this light...

meatwad already stated what he thought were the similarities:

He answered OG's post but what I want to know is how he answers Austruck:

By the way I thought that and your question were much simpler and better responses to meatwad's comparrison than rhetorical assualts like "the negative of the inverse direction, sloping downward in your use of the word 'less', clearly indicates your lack of a functioning human brain, for if you had one you would never correlate two unrelated concepts like you just did." I know we all like to feel smart, but it's usually a bad idea to attempt it while playing "the dozens".

lol generic

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Are you actively trying to court negative reputation?

sure

Alas....

Cue Celine Dion: "My rep will go on aaannnd on....."

What boat is that ? S.S Minoejohnson I belive ?

has anyone seen the omega man - how good is it ?

I saw Omega Man and I thought it was boring. Too much of Heston walking around, getting gas, and fighting fools in capes.

Who here has read Richard Matheson's book I Am Legend ?

I did and its NOTHING like the movie.

Actually, to be honest, Im very pleased that they are very much different because a direct book to film adaptation would be a disaster.

That's why the film shouldn't even have been advertised as based on his book or even been called I Am Legend.

Woah, lots of discussion here, mostly by this MEAT guy blabbering but anyway...

I managed to catch this a couple of weeks ago at a press screening, and after being a massive fan of the book, and generally a huge fan of apocalyptic fiction, I was so thrilled about this...until I heard Will Smith was playing Robert Neville. The Neville from the book is a burly blonde haired white guy, not a wise cracking fresh prince. So I was pleasantly surprised when I saw I Am Legend as I was honestly expecting another I, Robot, a watered down, over actioned explosive piece of dooky. But I was really impressed with Smith. As Yods said, he is given the task of carrying most of the movie on his own, and myself being a MASSIVE fan of Hank’s Cast Away, I really enjoyed his performance. He isnt by no means brilliant (As I thnk hanks is) but he does a great job. I could have done with seeing a bit more anguish though. The bit with Shrek was just uncomfortable. In a film about the end of mankind, there really isnt any need for some comic relief, the book doesn’t give it to us, so I would like the film to have done the same, but maybe that’s just me.

Good review by the way Yods, again I agree with most of what you say. The ‘dark seekers’ could have been so much better, but instead they're transformed into these almost superhuman monsters that just look way too CG, I would have preferred something a bit more human, because that’s the main shocking and horrifying irony about I Am Legend, it is about a man dealing with the isolation of being the only man left alive on earth, yet, the rest of mankind are still all around him, unfortunately they are no longer the same. They're all still there, every day, but he can't go near them. And I found the film made them too disconnected from humans.

In terms of the film as an adaptation, I do agree with OG- the whole premise of ‘Legend’ isnt really approached in this like it is in the book, and the film just converts it into a convenient Hollywood ending. I would have LOVED to have seen an ending like the book, but once again, maybe too much doom and gloom for everyone, even though I don’t think the ending of the book is necessarily downbeat, it’s just a good twist. In the book the mutated are vampires, which worked great as they were still very close to being Human, which made it so heart breaking for Neville. Yet I think if they had attempted that with the film, it just wouldn’t have gone down so well. Vampires are dated now. They are best saved for Blade style action movies. Where as I Am Legend is a story about a possible end to mankind. Even though the final monster looks odd, the reason for the event to happen is a very real one – a bioengineered virus to help with the cure of cancer. The creation of Vampires from this would have lead too much into fantasy and the supernatural, so I enjoyed this new premise.

The film reminded me of several other apocalyptic stories. 28 Days Later for the scares and tension, Signs for the narrative - how we find out Nevilles story at the end of the world and War Of The Worlds for the point of view. Other than Nevilles experience, we don't really know much else than what we see and the flashbacks.

I had fun with this, I even enjoyed the photography. Long lingering shots of a dead New York, looked amazing. Plus Thomas Newmans tinkling for the score every now and again was great. Overall, four stars from me.

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He's a real peach.

I found that part really uncomfortable as well, I'm not to sure they were trying to be funny there. I started to chuckle a little and then I looked at his eyes, he looked really miserable and lonely. Overall I thought the scene was well done.

I’m unsure as to whether they were trying to be funny as well, this is why I found it uncomfortable. I get it that they want us to know he has been alone for so long that he has watched the film a million times and knows it word for word, but if you actually listen to the scene, the conversation between Donkey and Shrek is something about how Shrek always wants to be alone, how he has been alone for so long he can’t be fun anymore. Something like that. So I get the message they're trying to get across, but I think basically, it could have worked better with a better choice of film - a more iconic film. Maybe the fact they use a comedy and its no longer funny is meant to be the emphasis here. I dunno.

I do know that after Shrek 3 this year, he’s a bit overexposed now. So maybe that’s what bugged me too. Meh.