f13.net

I need someone who liked this movie to explain to me what it did that I should have liked, preferably including one or more timecodes so I can go back and find it.

It was pretty. The dog was cool. There was an alternate ending that made more sense.

Other than that, I got nothing.

Hmmm.  How much more sense?  Because the one on HBO was kinda shitty.

The dog was indeed cool, but offing your dog is not.  Too much sadness with too little (zero?) payoff.

My wife found an alternate ending (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm7CxqJE2ZQ) that isn't perfect but is a sight better than the actual one.  Just having this ending would have made the rest of the ordeal more worthwhile... although I have already seen this in a Romero movie. :oh_i_see:

I need this same thing for In Bruges.  Decent movie, but I really don't get the love from the critics over it beyond the fact that this year was pretty soft for oscar worthy screenplays. 

Hmm driving around a post apocalyptic NY city with supercharged V8, a hunting rifle and an alsatian worked for me.

So you turned it off after the first ten minutes?  Good choice.

Hehe not quite, it's more of a cinema movie really and actually after the dog died I thought it started to go south. I did really enjoy some parts of it, though others

left me a bit cold. Like the I'm going insane so I'll start talking to cardboard cutouts I found a little overwrought, but for the most part as a popcorn film it held it's own.

As well as the haring around NY with his hunting rifle I enjoyed the suspense build up of the zombies where he has to get home before dark and barricade his

house. Or the part where the dog ran off and we are first introduced to the zombies I thought that was quite well done, quite eerie actually. Maybe I'm not as

stern as some people here but the zombies really creeped me out up til the end or maybe seeing it in the cinema helped heighten that.

Also I really like movies that are more visually driven like Castaway or The Pianist, without huge amounts of dialogue, I find them somewhat comforting,

I'm also a big fan of TV shows that do this like The Prisoner.

OK, I'll give you that it was great at first.  It just bothered me that it went somewhere I did not want and that did not support the first half of the movie, which the alt ending I linked actually did.  Really it was the ending that ruined the whole thing for me, plus the break in the middle when he was rescued, sort of like 28 Days.  I  could have done without the woman and boy.  Also I watched it in low-def.

I liked the bit where he was talking to the mannequins in the video store, however it seemed a bit disjointed since he was pretty with-it during the other scenes.  Will Smith just doesn't do "crazy" well, perhaps.

Yeh this pretty much, I remember he lost it cause one of the cutouts went missing and it had been kidnapped by the main-zombie as part of a clever ruse, it was kinda like "scorpion's now have wings we're all fucked realisation" that was pretty cool. But then on the flipside I thought going back to ask one out for dinner was a bridge too far on the insanity part for me, even if he did promise that darn loveable canine he'd do it.

If you aren't too embittered, just read the book. Its quite effective in ways the movie was not.

My wife is going to read it and then tell me about it.  I will play Persona 4.

Pretty much how I felt.  It was interesting to see Will Smith essentially have to carry the movie all by himself with his dog for an hour and somehow make it believable.  The ending was complete crap though in my opinion.  I was expecting the book's ending and theme, so when the girl showed up I thought "ruh roh" until I realized they weren't going that way and it angered me.  The alternate ending actually made it better and tied closer to the book (but not quite), but by then I was still bitter over the theatrical version so it didn't make me care to watch again.

I am too embittered to read the book, but am just curious to request someone spoiler the premise, how it diverged from the movie and where the "I am Legend" title actually made sense.

Spoiler Link (http://letmegooglethatforyou.com/?q=I+am+Legend+Wiki&l=1)

I liked it. The creature effects sucked and the theatrical ending was ass.

Watch the director's cut. Makes more sense and just works better, explains the trap set by the infected too.

I had already read the book by the time the movie was announced and then later released. I know it diverged from the book in some rather crucial ways, but I managed to disconnect enough from the book to watch and enjoy the movie for what it was; a Will Smith action movie about a man, his dog and his rifle. And zombies. And some chick and a kid. Also, I liked the alternative ending better, as quite a lot of other people.

Ah, the new rickroll.  /golfclap

I watched the different film versions of the Story one after the other over a few days from the Vincent Price one to the Will Smith one. None of them were especially good, the Will Smith one was actually okay for awhile, but the woman and the child brought the rest of the film down a lot, especially with the cliched "stupid woman fuckseverythingup" aspect along with the whole religious overtone. The alternate ending was better than the one they went with as well, though also not great.

Visually it was pretty though, and I actually liked Will Smith in a film for the first chunk of the film, so that's an achievement in itself.

Even a spoiler link doesn't quite convey the difference between book and movie. Its sorta like the Planet of the Apes and the remake by Tim Burton in 2001. You try to like the Burton one, it technically isn't that bad, but it just doesn't cut it. Not even close.

There's something muy 70s, muy hip, muy angsty about the book that Will Smith is just WRONG for. And I have nothing against Will Smith.

That's pretty impressive for a book written in 1956. You sure you didn't watch The Omega Man instead?

Seriously, read it. It has that 70s thing going on, even if its pre-70s. Sorta like Ginsberg and Howl, which is 1956 as well.

edit to pre-coffee typos

Interesting. I watched The Omega Man recently and was distinctly unimpressed - it was just too schlock. But I did like the eponymous film we're talking about but only because I watched it with the "alternative" (i.e. originally filmed, before fucking studio audience tests made them shoot a new one) ending.

With the proper ending it makes sense as a film - it's not a zombie or survival film, it's a film about prejudice and how one man becomes aware of how wrong he is.

With the theatrical ending it's yet another technically well-made but morally and intellectually bankrupt Hollywood shitbuster.

You're doing it wrong if you go to see this kind of film and expect anything guided by intellect or morality. Not sure if I would like to go see a film like this and be given a morality tale on how we should be nice to zombies cause maybe they aren't going to eat your brains & I already learned you can't judge a book by it's cover from Shrek 2.

But the whole point of the film was

At least with the proper ending it was. IMO. What I got from The Omega Man was that it was allegorical and anti-racist, and I intend to read the book now to see if I feel the same about that.

2007 called. It wants it's joke back.

I tried googling "why the hell should I give a shit about I Am Legend", but didn't find anything.

I did not enjoy this movie, I though it was too slow and the zombies were meh.

Well, this didn't deserve another thread, so I will just say that I am thoroughly disappointed that this is getting a sequel...

http://www.optionated.com/2012/02/will-smiths-i-am-legend-continues/

Be there.

(obligatory)

Damn you.

(http://i.mynicespace.com/0/49.gif)

How the fuck did the original make $585 million worldwide? Seriously? Damn you all for going to see this in the theaters, because you've guaranteed a sequel.

I torrent'd it so don't blame me. Besides, I thought the original was much better.

I heard a story on NPR some time last year that indicated lots of movies that flop in the US do phenomenally worldwide.   That's why Ghostrider is getting a sequel, for example.

Here's a list:

http://io9.com/5873224/hit-movies-that-everybody-thinks-were-flops

Ghostrider is getting a sequel as much to keep the rights from reverting back to marvel as anything.

Very common.  Like that movie about the cruise ship hit by a huge wave.  Total failure in the states- HUGE over seas.

:headscratch:

Because if it lost as much as the US wanted to believe it did, it totally makes sense to make another just to be vindictive?

Poseidon. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poseidon_(film)) 

Ah, thanks. I blocked that one from my memory.

I thought I had, but it came back.  With vengeance.

You owe me.

Eh, I liked I Am Legend, but I think the ending was super weak, and so I can't say I'm interested in a sequel.

I liked the last paragraph


If they used that ending then that might justify a sequel. They will be serving ice in the cocktail lounge of hell before that would get the green light though.