Just watched I Am Legend last night - well, I didn't actually watch the whole thing cuz, I had to leave after he shot Fred and got hung up by the zombies... then came back just in time to see him rescued by the girl and the kid, then had to leave about the time he started telling her about Bob Marley ... cuz, in the movies, once they start getting that comfortable, something bad is going to happen. Anyway, I thought it was pretty good. Not even remotely an 'Omega Man' remake, aside from Zombies in New York and the assumption that he's the last man alive ... and the 'sanctuary' up in the mountains. Ok, so it was a little like Omega Man. So. Who liked it? Who didn't? And why?
That's true. I was a bit disappointed in the zombies. They didn't scare me at all. It was more the thought of them getting the dog - which is exactly what happened ... I have to trick myself when I watch movies. It's the anticipation that gets me. I have a book or magazine, something else to concentrate on, so that I don't get so caught up in the movie.
It's a good movie though it kinda fell apart in the last act. That they mucked about with the ending is very obvious. I have to agree with the criticisms of the CGI too. A great performance by Smith though.
Smith, as most always, was good. They did a decent job of making the city look deserted. The ending left me with a lot of questions about what they intended.
My interpretation of the "Fred" incident: the darkseekers did not set that trap, Neville (Will Smith) did. In his diminished mental state, he seems to have forgotten about it. Consider: he recognized "Fred" and the trap was sprung exactly the way he caught the female darkseeker in an earlier scene (dropping car pulls a rope snare). Anyway, I thought the movie was pretty meh, but Will Smith did a good job and some of the visuals were impressive.
Interesting. I just thought they had learned from him. But, that is a possible senerio. I'd rewatch it, but it will have to wait for a Saturday or sunday morning - no more late night horror movies!!
Fine! I'll tell the hubby what you said and ask him how he thinks it relates to the end! Do you mean about how they intend to distribute the vaccine? I asked him about that, but he doesn't delve that deeply into movies ...
Smith's character does something I think he wouldn't do. If you search, you'll probably find the thread on the movie around here somewhere. Most people liked the movie with a few caveats.
But the bad guy was waiting for nightfall with the infected dogs. I think the darkseekers set the trap for him. Actually, the DVD 'alternate' version supports that, but you can't use the alternate version to argue about what happened in the theatrical cut.
True, but I chalked up the bad guy's appearance to coincidence. But all this leads to an interesting question: if the trap was the work of the bad guys, how could they possibly know about Neville's connection to "Fred?" I guess I'll have to go back and review. My first thought when Neville got trapped was that it was the darkseekers that did it. Then I thought: they don't seem capable of thought that complex. I actually like the idea of Neville inadvertently catching himself in his own trap better.
I figured there would have been and looked back to ... I think the third page, but, hasn't the board been 'pruned' since the movie first came out? I just figured it was probably gone. I didn't think the 'darkseekers' were capable of that kind of complex thought either. I thought it was someone else trying to either trap Neville or just to thin out the darkseekers. That's the only reason I stayed as long as I did (at that point), I thought someone else might show up before dark. When they didn't, I knew the zombies were coming and left the room.
I suppose you can interpret it any way you want, but the point is that the darkseekers hadn't devolved as far as Neville thought they had. The reason the one exposed himself to sunlight after the first trap sprung is that Neville had just snatched his girlfriend. Neville was fooling himself- it was his way of dealing psychologically with all the people he'd killed while experimenting on finding a cure. If you haven't watched the alternate version, you should. I don't like the ending at all but it does put a whole different spin on the story, and makes it closer to Matheson's novel in spirit if not in detail.
I don't know if they knew about Fred specifically. They just needed something to lure Neville to the trap and moving one of his mannequins was an easy way to do it. If it was one of Neville's traps using Fred as bait doesn't make much sense. A darkseer isn't going to care about a random mannequin. I think Neville only saw what he wanted to see. He interpreted the darkseer exposing itself to sunlight as a loss of survival instinct (i.e. complete mindlessness) where it looked a lot like an emotional response to me.
I did watch the alternate ending, but I thought it was inconsistent with the darkseekers' behavior. I saw nothing in the film that justified Neville's "leap of faith."
That makes sense, cuz it looked like an emotional response to me also. I didn't analyze Neville's 'interpretation' of the action, just figured that's what the writer's intended ... wow. I so missed so much more of the movie ...
Even if we take the trap out of the equation we still have the darkseer tracking Neville and using dogs to attack him. I think that alone should point to a greater intelligence than Neville was willing to admit to himself.
Horror? The most horror inducing part of this movie for me was the thought of $6 gas in the not to distant future!! I liked this movie more than most it seems.
Near the begining of the movie, Neville returns homeand as he goes insode, he pours what I thought was bottled water on the steps of his porch behnd him as if he was washing away his scent. After he was rescued, he asks the girl if she was followed and she said no... but the vampires find him anyway... Could it be that the vampires had a heightened sense of smell and this led them there? Could this and the fact that he dressed Fred be how they knew of his fondness for the mannequin?
It wasn't too bad. Has Will Smith been in any flat out terrible movies? I can't think of any. Oh, wait. Wild Wild West.
I think the darkseekers set the trap. I don't know what Neville was thinking when he caught the "girlfriend" but I was thinking that darkseeker male was all sorts of pissed off. Neville should have gone for the head shot right there and then. I don't think it was the original building where Neville caught the female either. I think it was a different building. It wouldn't surprise me if the darkseekers were watching during the late afternoon period when the sun is going down. They don't have to go outside to see outside. You have Neville's mannequin moved and then set casually in front of a building with a rope trap. Then you have the dogs being released. Why didn't the head darkseeker come out of the building? Given the behavior of the darkseekers according to Neville they were just mindless attacking machines. Both the darkseekers and the dogs should have come out at the same time. That they didn't shows to me that the dogs were under control of the head guy and the head guy was afraid that Neville might shoot him with a gun. Having thoughts like that requires some level of intelligence. Of course there is the final scene where the head guy kicks everyone out of the way so he can go after Neville personally. Mindless "rage filled" infected people don't behave that way. Someone spoil the alternate ending for me. I don't mind.
I had nothing wrong with the ending released in theatres, but the original ending was truly amazing. I think it leads to more of what had been hinted at throughout the entire movie before it.
I watched a bit of both versions (theatrical, alternate) last night and came to the following: 1. In the alternate version, there is very little doubt that the chief darkseeker set the trap. Dialog in the scene where Neville and the woman and child are looking over the car and the rigging for the trap makes it pretty clear. 2. In the theatrical version, there's still room for doubt. You're stuck with a problem either way. If the darkseeker set the trap, how could he possibly know about "Fred" (or know that Neville would even see the trap to begin with)? If Neville set the trap and forgot about it, it's awfully convenient that the darkseeker and his dogs happen to be right there when he falls into it. I guess I'm going to have to concede: the darkseeker set the trap. He must've observed Neville during the daytime and noticed "Fred" and also figured out Neville's driving pattern.
That was my interpretation of the scene when I first saw the movie. He had a case of the kookies and forgot that he had setup the trap in the street. I have a little trouble buying that the vampires here learned from Neville and replicated the trap. Mainly because they seem to be completely unthinking and violent whenever they're shown. The only instance where they seem to have much remaining intelligence was the alternate ending. Having seen the other movies based on the novel, I would have preferred a little more intelligence in the vampires as they do in the other movies and the original story. They were so fake looking that they didn't seem scary as they were shown in the movie. Anyway, I thought it was a decent movie. The first 2/3 or so were great, but started to fall apart after that. The ending was a let down, and only got worse once I read the novel. "The Last Man on Earth" is by far my favorite of the "I Am Legend" adaptations.
The alternate ending goes more along with the original book...thematically at least. It makes more sense to me. It does a better job of explaining why he is legend.
