I Am Legend.
There is nothing legendary about this film or its story. After witnessing brief excerpts of a few movie trailers and being aware that the movie starred a popular and skillful actor, I felt there was no need to investigate (and possibly spoil) the content of the film itself. The synopsis, in my mind, had to do with aliens or something to that effect. Wrong.
Ah, and before I begin diving into the contents of the movie, please be warned, I do fully intend to reveal spoilers and other such sensitive information, so if you’re interested in being surprised as to what this movie is really about, please feel free to attempt to do so without reading further. But I doubt you’ll be surprised. “Cliche” rings quite loudly in this film.
The film starts out with a TV interview about a cure for cancer. It cuts off and suddenly you see Will Smith driving a red Mustang through an abandoned city of New York (or so it appears). I don’t know who selected the car, but I think that they could have picked something better. Are there no Lamborghini in New York? Surely, a nicer vehicle could have been featured for such a brief period of time, as he drives an SUV the rest of the movie.
Anyway, poor vehicular selection aside, it quickly becomes apparent that Will is hunting deer, nearly hairless deer. But later we find, he doesn’t intend to eat them. The next scene places he and his dog in his home, having some assorted vegetable meal together (not out of the same plate, of course). The TV is on, but appears to be playing back recordings of television shows. On his way inside, he pours water on the porch.
The movie, in its entirety, lasts only a few days; during three of the nights, Will has dreams about his life when the panic hits. I will go ahead and tell you all three of them now. In the first one, you learn that there was a viral outbreak of the “mutated virus” that supposedly “cures” cancer. In the second, you learn how Will stays in New York in an attempt to discover a solution while he sends his family to safety via helicopter — his daughter hands him the dog, named Sam, before the helicopter takes off. In the third dream, a bunch of “dark seekers,” as they’re called, attack a nearby NYPD helicopter, which loses control and crashes into the lifeline helicopter that his family is in. They’re dead. I’d have nightmares about that, too.
So, the first morning that the movie takes you through reveals that Will is not only a Lieutenant but also a scientist. Downstairs, he has a laboratory in which he has been experimenting on rats. Keeping records on all of the experiments (by recording on an iMac with “six redundant drives” — at least he’s using an Apple), he wears a headset of some kind to record live video. At this point, it becomes evident that his “hunt” was an attempt to capture and experiment on animals… Or something.
The next day, Will is playing golf because he has nothing better to do. Sam sees a deer and begins chasing it, so Will follows. Promptly, the deer dashes into a dark corner that opens up into a pitch-black building. The dog follows, and Will freaks out. Apparently, the darkness is where these “dark seekers” hide.
What are “dark seekers”? They resemble vampires, in my opinion. Poryphoric hemophilia and all that jazz. Basically they are humans who received the virus and converted to some bluish, super-powered, less-than-sentient zombie-like monsters. Sunlight apparently kills them quickly, and animals are affected, too. However, it seems that deer and lions (witnessed at the beginning of the movie — I don’t know how lions ended up in New York, but anyway) are not harmed by sunlight. I don’t know why, seeing as another part of the movie reveals that dogs — a non-human animal — are harmed by sunlight as well. Plot hole? I think so.
Anyway, dark seekers. They seem to thirst for blood, too. After saving his dog, Will sets a trap by placing a vial of his blood in the entrance of the building. Interestingly, prior to setting the trap, Will takes his coat off, tosses it on the ground, and douses it in water; he then puts it back on and prepares to set the trap. The movie never makes it clear (or even deducible) what the purpose behind the water is or what effect it has (if any). Anyway, a young female dark seeker promptly attempts to consume the blood and gets caught. However, a larger male seeker sticks its ugly head out into the sunlight intentionally to yell and fuss and throw a fit at Will. Will makes note of this behavior in his personal video log after stating that the dark seekers degenerated into a completely inhuman existence. That seems contradictory, seeing as the large male dark seeker exhibited what I would consider sentience. (Later, it becomes clear that this individual dark seeker is the leader of all the rest, communicating to them en masse via gnarly growls and yells.)
Further clarifying that there is sentience among these seekers, is the fact that a trap is set to capture Will. The leader of the dark seekers holds back a few dark seeker dogs and then releases them. (Apparently, Will never sees this although it happens in front of his face.) They do not get him, but they get his dog, whom he later must kill with his own hands because it was infected with the virus. Long story short, it’s obvious that the dark seekers have some kind of coordination and intelligence.
Will gets depressed after losing his dog, tries to kill himself, and is saved by a woman (and her child). A lot of drama takes place in the house. Then the dark seekers show up after following them to Will’s house (something, apparently, they could not do before because he always went home during daylight hours). Some zombie killing and immense explosions take place, and the trio wind up locked in Will’s own lab, where one of his experiments (on the young female human he captured earlier) seems to be reverting back to human. Then the dark seekers break through the door in a matter of seconds, and the three get behind a glass door where the operating table and reverting human are. For whatever reason, the dark seekers suddenly can’t just break through the glass, which doesn’t make sense, but I can stretch my imagination a little.
In any case, the leader of the dark seekers begins ramming into the glass, eventually forming a butterfly figure with the broken shards. Will then remembers his daughter saying “Look it’s a butterfly!” while playing with her hands when they were on their way to the helicopter. Then he looks down and sees a butterfly tattoo on the woman’s neck. I don’t know what the heck butterflies have to do with anything, but okay. A sign, a symbol of some kind.
Then Will draws blood from the woman (I think, it was hard to tell what happened, it may have been from the female specimen), hands it to her, and says it’s the cure and to escape through this random chute he opens. They disappear, he grabs a grenade, the seekers break through the glass, and everyone blows up except the woman and her son.
The woman and her son travel to mountains in Vermont and save the world with his cure. And that’s somehow is his legend…
So there you have it. In a nutshell, you have mindless vampires that are a result of a cure for cancer, who cannot come out during the day (although infected animals — with the exception of dogs — can), and are sentient although Will refuses to acknowledge it after becoming victim to a number of traps set up in the same fashion as the ones he used to capture human specimens for his experiments in an attempt to cure or reverse the effects of the mutated virus that brought mankind to the brink of extinction. Cliche? Yes. Plot holes abound? Yes. Good movie choice? No. Well-produced piece of garbage, providing minimal entertainment? You got it.
Wow, stop being a overly critical prick and maybe you can enjoy the majority of movies that are out. Yes plot holes abound, but what modern blockbuster isn’t riddled with fluff and plot holes? Legend was a good movie, it wasn’t spectacular but it certainly isn’t “well-produced garbage” Keep your standards that day and you might as well live in a garbage chute for the rest of your life. Go /wrists please, you never even mentioned the amazing job Will Smith did acting his part in this movie. PHAIL
December 24th, 2007 at 9:25 pm
Read the book.
December 25th, 2007 at 10:48 am
The lions and deer weren’t infected, hence their ability to be in sunlight… not sure how you drew that conclusion, they didn’t even look sick. The dogs, on the other hand, were clearly infected. As for the glass being hard to break in his lab, seeing as how he kept very strong, dangerous specimens behind it, it would only make sense that it’s no ordinary glass. Finally, Will drew blood from the specimen, not the woman… even if it was hard to visually see, he then turns to the woman with the kid and says, “Here, the cure is in HER blood.”
Still, this was a nicely written review.
December 26th, 2007 at 2:07 am
The deer and lions at the beginning are not infected and he’s hunting the deer for fresh meat, not to experiment on. When they get home he complains again of the lack of meat when he tries to encourge his dog to eat vegetables. The lions came from a zoo. I don’t know if there’s one in Manhattan but that’s clearly the intent.
In the novel Neville is “Legend” because he finally realizes he’s a reverse vampire to the new type of humans outside, just like Dracula would be legendary to us normal humans. In this movie it’s a real stretch to pretend the I am legend refers to Neville’s dedication to curing the disease.
December 26th, 2007 at 11:30 pm
It wasnt water it was vinegar he was splashing on the steps and his jacket vinegar kills scent. hunters use it so deer can approach them. so he was throwing off his human scent so they wouldnt find him. and the deer and lions werent infected . lions probably from a zoo? they looked infected because they were computer animated. and he was hunting them for food. (the deer)
hope i was helpful.
December 29th, 2007 at 12:08 am
Haha, thanks for that comment, Neville. I’m sorry that I offended you in my “reactions” to this movie (I would call it a “review,” but reviews are much more thoroughly written, and I wrote this entry in a very brief amount of time without engaging my brain too deeply). In any case, my comment “well-produced garbage” is merely to indicate that everything about the movie was top-notch: acting, production, visuals, and so on; yet, for whatever reason, the storyline itself was very unclear.
I have discovered, after some further thought, that the movie makes excellent metaphorical points. For example, relentless racial offense and retaliation despite obvious and indisputable facts that make fighting entirely unnecessary. I haven’t read the book yet, as Tyrone recommended, but hopefully it is much more unequivocal in its presentation of the metaphors.
Thanks to Prince, JC, and Thand for making excellent points. The movie makes a bit more sense now than it did at first glance. I’m no hunter, so I was unaware of the vinegar situation, which is why I was somewhat confused. And the animals really did look sick because the deer had red eyes (or seemed to, as far as I could tell) and you could see their ribs and the skin seemed as if it were about to fall off their backs.
I have become more interested in reading the novel now, though, thanks to your comments.
December 29th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Holy shit you’re a fucking douche. You’re trying way too hard chief. You sound like a fucking loser.
Guess you’ve never heard of Plexiglas. Jesus fuck, you are a moron, and this might be the worst movie review I’ve ever read.
January 1st, 2008 at 2:28 am
ps. Don’t review movies if you can’t comprehend some basic elements in the film. Maybe you should start off with some G rated movies and work your way up until you find some films you can understand.
I’d probably dislike ‘I am Legend’ as well if I grasped as little of it as you did.
January 1st, 2008 at 2:29 am
Haha.
I considered not even crediting your comment with an approval, but then I thought it was so hilarious that you got so upset over a movie review that I’d allow the rest of the world to see how much of an idiot you are. =)
January 1st, 2008 at 3:51 am
I agree with 95% of your analysis, however, I have at least another 5 or 10 plot holes that just ruined the movie for me. I’ve added a few of the more popular ones below:
When he first engages the zombies, why are they huddled like a football huddle? Why did only 1 attack him? why didn’t the gunshots enrage any of the others?
Why did the zombies because super strong? They climb buildings instantly, and can plow through steel doors as if they were made out of paper.
When the zombie unleashed the dogs on him, why didn’t he (or any of the other zombies) go after him?
The zombies die if direct contact with UV light. However, as any person with any level of intelligence would know, it is very possible to be out in the day but not in direct sunlight. This is especially true in NYC, as the buildings would provide shade. It would be impossible to think that the zombies could create the trap that they did, but could not be able to walk around outside of the UV light. What if a cloud went in front of the sun? Game Over Will Smith!
To take this further, why did the dogs have to wait for the light to go completely down? They easily could have found another way around or just ran through the sunlight, it was 1 cm thick, and they originally ran into it, and then back out.
Where were all the other zombies at this point?
Why couldn’t the zombies watch Will Smith during the day? All they would have to do is stay in a building and look out the window.
It is made clear that the zombie lives as long as there is cloth over it’s body. The one zombie sees this, along with the trap that Will Smith makes, and I am to believe that the zombie learned how to make a highly sophisticated trap, but was unable to learn to just put some clothes on so they can walk around during the day?
The lady that saved Will Smith came as THE EXACT RIGHT TIME, and apparently killed off all the zombies perfectly with her car, and then was able to get his body out of a smashed up car without any trouble. And then the zombies were able to follow her? What the?
Animals roam the city during the day while Will Smith is there, why wouldn’t the zombies kill them all during the night? Do the zombies just hate Will Smith? There also isn’t much damage anywhere else, so am I supposed to believe that the zombies sole purpose in life is to kill Will Smith, and leave everything else in tact perfectly? Also, how the hell did lions get into NYC?
Why did Will Smith kill himself? Am I honestly supposed to believe that that grenade killed every single monster perfectly, yet didn’t harm the other two people one bit? And if that was the case, the explosion would have severely limited the oxygen supply for them, thus killing them.
How did his house have full operational features after all this time, such as fresh running water. These are things we take for grated, but require other means to operate.
A more important question than how did Will Smith survive all this time would be how did the zombies survive all this time? What did they eat? Apparently they want to eat Will Smith? Do they only need to feed once every 5 years?
So for these reasons, I thought the movie was terrible in the end. For the first hour I was liking most of it, but by the end I was pissed and wanted a refund.
-Chris
January 2nd, 2008 at 1:01 am
“Surely, a nicer vehicle could have been featured for such a brief period of time, as he drives an SUV the rest of the movie.”
The sports car is for speed to chase down the deer, the suv is all purpose. Plus I don’t think he’s going to spend his valuable time searching new york for an almost useless asset like a car that’s just eyecandy.
“But later we find, he doesn’t intend to eat them.”
He does, how is he going to experiment on a dead specimen?
“On his way inside, he pours water on the porch.”
It’s alchohol, he uses it to cover his scent so the darkseekers don’t know where he lives.
“— I don’t know how lions ended up in New York”
A zoo.
“I don’t know why, seeing as another part of the movie reveals that dogs — a non-human animal — are harmed by sunlight as well. Plot hole? I think so.”
Those dogs are infected whereas the lions are not. You can tell because of the symptoms. :P
“what the purpose behind the water is or what effect it has (if any). ”
Again alchohol to cover his scent. The darkseekers might be able to smell him and realize it’s a trap. After all they can imitate it, why wouldn’t they be able to identify it?
“(Apparently, Will never sees this although it happens in front of his face.)”
Just because he isn’t shitting his pants on camara and freaking out doesn’t mean he didn’t notice it.
“(something, apparently, they could not do before because he always went home during daylight hours).”
Again, he covered his tracks and they were lead to his house by the woman.
“the dark seekers suddenly can’t just break through the glass, which doesn’t make sense,”
Imagine a scientist/lietenent/zombie apocolypse survivor having a fall back plan with some strong glass. If that’s so inconcievable to you, bulletproof glass anyone?
“(I think, it was hard to tell what happened, it may have been from the female specimen), ”
I thought it was pretty clear, he says “take this it has the cure”. It’s from the female darkseeker who was reverting back to human, so her blood contains the vaccine. I can understand how you might of missed this, shedding tears from the loss of your credibility.
“The woman and her son travel to mountains in Vermont and save the world with his cure. And that’s somehow is his legend…”
His legend is that he found the cure and saved the world by sacrificing himself.
“(although infected animals — with the exception of dogs — can),”
The only infected animals we see in the film are dogs. The lions and deer are not. I think you missed the part when they explained on three different occasions that animals are immune to the airborne virus, but can be affected by contact.
“and are sentient although Will refuses to acknowledge it ”
He never refused to acknowledge it, he just didn’t take the time to clarify everything that was going through his head by saying it out loud so slow viewers such as yourself could actually understand it. You should “review” some disney movies, they’re a little bit more your speed I think.
“Cliche? Yes.”
Find me three movies that are about a scientist trying to save zombies. That aren’t adeptations of the same novel.
” Well-produced piece of garbage, providing minimal entertainment? You got it.”
I disagree, but even so it one-ups your poorly thought out, terribly produced, piece of crap.
January 3rd, 2008 at 9:49 am
“When he first engages the zombies, why are they huddled like a football huddle? Why did only 1 attack him? why didn’t the gunshots enrage any of the others?”
I think they were eating the deer that they caught. Like animals they won’t kill more than they need to feed. It is also possible that they were asleep as it was daytime and they do sleep. Keeping in mind Will didn’t make that much noise, it’s perfectly concievable that they wouldn’t attack him. Obviously the dog managed to attract the attention of one though which is the one that attacked him. Also, when did he fire his gun at all? Even if he did (which I don’t remember at all) the dark seekers wouldn’t just jump to attention and chase him down. He was already running for the window and the dark seekers might have also been attracted to the scent of the deer’s blood, whereas Will wasn’t bleeding at all.
“Why did the zombies because super strong? They climb buildings instantly, and can plow through steel doors as if they were made out of paper.”
I do not know why the zombies “because” super strong. It’s not really a plot hole if they don’t explain every aspect of the movie out loud to you, is it? They stuck to the important parts and small details hardly ruin the illusion for anyone with the exception of those who go into the movie knowing they already hate it.
“When the zombie unleashed the dogs on him, why didn’t he (or any of the other zombies) go after him?”
“Where were all the other zombies at this point?”
There wasn’t any clear evidence that the other zombies were even within the vaccinity. It was still daytime and I assume the zombies need to sleep sometimes. Also, this one zombie has a special hatred of Will Smith and also an intelligent mind. It’s just speculation, but he could have been testing the effectiveness of his dogs, or staying away from the action to protect himself. Later on when he attacks Will’s hideout he leaps away from him to not get hit by the bullets. So you can’t say that the zombies just attack full frontal with no self preservance at all.
“It would be impossible to think that the zombies could create the trap that they did, but could not be able to walk around outside of the UV light. What if a cloud went in front of the sun? Game Over Will Smith!”
“Why couldn’t the zombies watch Will Smith during the day? All they would have to do is stay in a building and look out the window.”
Well these zombies exhibit signs of intelligence despite what Will Smith doesn’t say on camara. I’m sure they know that they need to rest and also the chance of the cloud moving away from the sun is too great. I’m also sure that there isn’t a line of buildings that follows Will Smith’s every movement. They aren’t the CIA, they have a nest.
“To take this further, why did the dogs have to wait for the light to go completely down? They easily could have found another way around or just ran through the sunlight, it was 1 cm thick, and they originally ran into it, and then back out.”
They ran out for a reason. Survival instinct. Who knows how little sunlight it takes to kill these things? I’m sure the dogs don’t. All they know is that they can wait a couple of seconds and not get killed at all. The movie shows the entire street being blocked by the sunlight, so going around the block would be a waste of time and the dogs aren’t thinking about shortcuts.
“It is made clear that the zombie lives as long as there is cloth over it’s body. The one zombie sees this, along with the trap that Will Smith makes, and I am to believe that the zombie learned how to make a highly sophisticated trap, but was unable to learn to just put some clothes on so they can walk around during the day?”
This is a valid point. Although I’d like to mention that Will sedates the female zombie which doesn’t make it exactly clear that the zombie lives. At least not to the one looking into sunlight, something it doesn’t normally do. Also, that zombie might want to sleep during the day, considering it isn’t eating that much it needs energy.
“The lady that saved Will Smith came as THE EXACT RIGHT TIME, and apparently killed off all the zombies perfectly with her car, and then was able to get his body out of a smashed up car without any trouble. And then the zombies were able to follow her? What the?”
She didn’t kill off the zombies. Her jeep was set up with UV lights which is what made the rival-zomb (that one really smart one) retract from the overturned SUV. I don’t see how pulling him out would cause any issues if she had the lights on the car. Also they could track them because they didn’t use the vinegar/ alchohol.
“Animals roam the city during the day while Will Smith is there, why wouldn’t the zombies kill them all during the night? Do the zombies just hate Will Smith? There also isn’t much damage anywhere else, so am I supposed to believe that the zombies sole purpose in life is to kill Will Smith, and leave everything else in tact perfectly? Also, how the hell did lions get into NYC?”
I assume the animals are smart enough to not roam the city during the night. Also, I’m sure the zombies do kill a lot of them during the night. What makes you think otherwise? It seems as if you have pegged the zombies as huligans with a hatred for the guy being the buzzkill. Well they aren’t. They don’t have a special hatred for Will Smith (the rival-zomb might because he stole his mate or whatever) and they aren’t going to just destroy stuff at random. Why wouldn’t they leave the city intact? It makes no sense for them to destroy everything. Stop watching godzilla. Ever heard of a zoo? Lions live there.
“Why did Will Smith kill himself? Am I honestly supposed to believe that that grenade killed every single monster perfectly, yet didn’t harm the other two people one bit? And if that was the case, the explosion would have severely limited the oxygen supply for them, thus killing them.”
He killed himself to buy the woman and kid some time. He knew rival-zomb was baying for his blood. I also assume since Will planned the chute and grenade as a fall back plan he considered the possibilities. Consider the chute leads to the outside, or has an oxygen supply. Consider that it’s door is thick enough to absorb the explosion. I’m beggining to think that you didn’t even give the movie a chance, that you just wanted to sound smart buy finding flaws that could easily be explained with a little imagination.
“How did his house have full operational features after all this time, such as fresh running water. These are things we take for grated, but require other means to operate.”
How do you know that the city didn’t set the hydro up to work indefinatly? My water runs infinitly for each month I pay for it, I don’t see how it’s impossible to have it working like that all the time. If you actually know anything about how the hydro utility company operates feel free to correct me. I don’t feel like I take hydro for “grated” by the way.
“A more important question than how did Will Smith survive all this time would be how did the zombies survive all this time? What did they eat? Apparently they want to eat Will Smith? Do they only need to feed once every 5 years?”
I assume they ate a lot of the animals that were domesticated in the zoo and roaming around the city. I assume that they ate any survivors aside from Will Smith that weren’t smart enough. And of course they want to eat Will Smith. And just for your information unanswered questions that aren’t related to the story aren’t really plot holes, ya know?
“So for these reasons, I thought the movie was terrible in the end. For the first hour I was liking most of it, but by the end I was pissed and wanted a refund.”
Well for these reasons, I thought your review was terrible in the end. For the first hour I was pulling my hair out, but by the end I was punching my wall and wanted the time it took to pick apart your “argument” back.
January 3rd, 2008 at 5:47 pm
I don’t buy that the darkseekers set up a trap for Neville. How could they know that a mannequin in a totally different part of the city had some deep significance to Neville? How would they know what route he would drive? If they could observe him during the day, it’s a pretty safe bet they would be able to find out where he lived. When Neville sees the mannequin, it’s head appears to move indicating that either a.) the mannequin can move or is alive (retarded)…. or b.) Neville is losing his mind (indicated heavily in the movie). The idea that the darkseekers set the trap is farfetched in alot of ways, but unfortunately the movie leaves so many holes in the plot that it’s impossible to know anything for sure. Entertaining movie nonetheless.
January 4th, 2008 at 6:17 am
I actually enjoyed this movie until the end, seemed a bit cheap to end it that way. I was going to address some of the plot holes mentioned above.
As far as the huddle, I believe they were supposed to be sleeping, hence his soft stepping and attempt to be quiet, It looked to me like quite a few of them were enraged and went after him but only two followed him out the window.
The strength thing is because as a result of the virus their adrenal glands are stuck open all the time. Ripping thru steel may be a bit of a stretch, but there are many documented cases of people who are hyper-adrenal performing amazing feats of strength and endurance.
Dont know why the zombies did not come out when the dogs did?
I thought the dogs could just run real fast thru the sunlight also, however if you remember, the zombies eyes are also dialated, which would make even low levels of light excruciatingly painfull. The zombies did not create the trap, they copied it. Reverse engineering a trap requires far less intelligence than inventing one yourself.
I dont think there was any reason they could not watch him during the day except maybe the aforementioned sleep.
The lady that rescued him used not just her car but flares as well, these would be very painfull to the eyes of the zombies so maybe they ran away. and maybe she killed some and maybe some died when Will Smith was doing his donuts. She sais that she came at noon and was waiting for him and then saved him when he was trying to kill himself. The zombies did not follow her, they followed the trail of his blood, he told her that he was still bleeding and to drive around until day then they could go to his house safely.
maybe the zombies do kill some animals at night, it would seem to me that the animals, without human interferance, coulb procreate faster than the zombies could kill them. Lions and any other exotic animals could have came from any of the at least 4 zoos I found in a quick Google search of the NYC area. As far as damage, it appeared to me that there was quite a bit of damage to the city. Maybe after the zombies had killed all the normals that wre left they really did not have a reason to destroy anything else. And yes, the Zombies do hate Will Smith because he captures and kills them, as evidenced by the wall of photos of his experiment victims. This also supports the trap copying argument, as he probably has used that same trap many times in the past and they have had ample opportunity to study it.
As far as killing himself, I thought that was just a cheap way out at the end. Maybe the grenade didn’t “perfectly” kill them but killed or wounded them enough that they ran off, also since he was dead they had no real reason to be there anymore. The space they were hiding in was a coal chute, it would have had another door at street level for coal deliveies so oxygen may not have been that big of a problem for the brief amount of time they had to spend hiding.
if you noticed they showed the generators and such that were running the house, and when he turns on the water you can hear a pump turn on, probably ran by the same generators as before.
The zombies could eat each other, or as you mentioned the wild animals, or maybe the could raid a grocery store and get some ramen or something???
Like I said above I enjoyed this movie right up to the end. In the book there are actually two types of zombies and the lead charachter is captured and executed by one group because he has killed so many of them.
Hope that answers some questions.
January 6th, 2008 at 12:09 am
I’d like to apologize once again if I offended anyone who enjoyed this movie. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: this isn’t a “review.” This is the initial reactions I had to the movie. I wrote this in about five or ten minutes’ time and didn’t give the movie much time to sink in. I admit I went too far by calling the movie a “well-produced piece of garbage,” as it initially seemed to be to me personally, but this blog can hardly be considered a review of the movie. It’s merely my reactions to it, so please don’t get frustrated and throw a fit if I have said something about the movie that you didn’t like.
That said, I am considering writing an entry (again, not a “review”) on the Alien vs. Predator Requiem movie in theaters, but I’m a little apprehensive after the comments I have received on this blog entry! Maybe I should just avoid some of the statements that piss people off. =)
Oh, and thanks to those of you who were kind of enough to shed light on various aspects of I Am Legend which were not initially clear to me.
January 10th, 2008 at 2:38 am
Sorry this is a late response, but I have to say that “mike” gave some interesting, yet extremely invalid points in his rebuttal of my remarks. I’m not going to waste my time responding to all of them. Long story short, you made a ridiculous amount of assumptions to justify things, most of which I wish could say were possibly false assumptions, but they were nothing short of incorrect, invalid statements. There’s no sense in trying to explain them to you again. You clearly liked the movie and will make any attempt to explain things, no matter how unrealistic you need to be, and how illogical your arguments are.
I’ll just attack the one argument you made that made me laugh so much I almost fell out of my seat. When responding to why didn’t the zombies do anything intelligent ever, such as look out a window during day, or put cloth on, etc., your response was “I’m sure they know that they need to rest” and “that zombie might want to sleep during the day”. Oh really? You are 100% sure that they absolutely must remain in sleep mode between the hours of 6am and 6am? Of course even if this was the case, it wouldn’t make any sense as a few zombies were seen awake during the day, otherwise there would be zero fear during the day. I think it is clear after reading your comments who is in need of sleep. ;)
There’s really nothing wrong with admitting that you liked a movie, yet it made no sense. You are probably just trying to justify things with yourself, seeing as how you realized, after reading my comments, that the movie was completely illogical and had more plot holes than every other movie I’ve seen combined. The problem with movies today, in general, is that they try to entertain an audience, yet spend very little time developing a logic flow of events.
In other words, your argument is that just because they didn’t explain everything, that therefore it could be explained by the use of ones’ imagination, thus justifying itself. If this is the case, why not have every movie created just not explain anything, that way there can’t be any problems with it.
Unfortunately sir, your intelligence can not match up to mine. I appreciate your time and comments, but you have done nothing but prove to me that you have very minimal intelligence. This movie has plot holes, accept it. If you still want to like it, that’s fine, but the plot is flawed, ridiculously flawed. Accept it.
-Chris
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:50 pm
why is everyone trying to prove that the movie is rubbish, or the opposite??
it was just a amusing movie, though it wasn’t a very good movie. but what does it matter? it was fun watching it, wasnt it? then what does it matter whether where the lions come from, or how they made the trap??
only good movies have logic. this wasnt a good movie. but that doesnt necessarily mean that the movie is stupid, innit?
regards from the Netherlands and UK
March 13th, 2008 at 4:06 am
I’m sorry to see that so many people are offended by the fact that not everything was explained in this movie. Sure, there were a lot of unanswered questions, but these are the things that help us exercise our critical thinking skills and imaginations.
In Literature classes, we are taught to critically analyze a work based on its intended meaning and to try to gain a perspective on what message the author is trying to convey to an audience. Oftentimes, the literary works we study in our classes leave things to the imagination for the reader to decide. The advantage is that the literary work can mean one thing to one person and have a completely different meaning to another person.
The book, which I have not yet read, will most likely be better than the movie. Although it is difficult for a director to take a story that is originally told using words and then tell the story using pictures, overall this story does a great job of showing the audience what post-apocalyptic life could be like in the event of mass extinction.
James
March 23rd, 2008 at 8:07 pm
The original novel wanted to account for the existence of “legendary” vampires by positing a disease that could create such a creature. So the infected would have many vampire attributes; in particular, they would be very strong and hard to kill.
Matheson explains how it would work in some detail in his book. The screen writer takes another approach — he is not trying to account for vampire legends, which is a major difference — and I believe the backstory of the virus is that besides it causing adrenal glands to be wide open, the virus over time begins to replace human cells, making the creatures much more robust, which is why, for example, the alpha did not mind using his head as a battering ram. Of course, this is more or less biologically complete nonsense.
This viral replacement thing is discussed somewhere but I do not have a link anymore.
To me the most important theme is sentience. Neville spends his time talking to his dog and even dummies, but denies the sentience of the creatures.
The movie was certainly effective — the scene with Neville going through the building looking for his dog was incredibly scary and intense.
I would like to suggest that the huddle might not have any simple explanation; the creature were not sleeping or eating but instead were doing something for which there is no human analog.
March 28th, 2008 at 2:49 am
I did find the complete original script online. Talk about different!
Here is link: http://www.horrorlair.com/scripts/legend.txt
March 30th, 2008 at 1:26 am