I am Legend

[Earth]

Went and saw this on opening day

Quick review with no to minor spoilers

First I want to make it known I've seen the original. Now I was concerned when I saw the new infected and how they resembled zombies instead of pale crazy eyed infected in Omega Man. After watching the movie making the infected zombie like did indeed ruin the movie to a point, making it seem more like a typical resident evil movie and far less deeper than Omega Man was

The movie takes advantage of making the infected more zombie like but it also loses some luster by mirroring zombie movies a bit too much.

The movie was very tense all the way through

There were some scenes that seemed out of place and probably were included only to boost the films length to a measly 100 minutes, a run time you'd expect a comedy to have, not a high budget film about the end of the world

There is plot holes and some things that will make you say who, what, why, and how.

Overall the extremely tense scenes make up for some of the shortcomings

***
3 out of 4 stars

 

[YSSMAN]

I Am Legend, the book, FTW!... This ones a rental I'm afraid...

 

[a6m5]

I want to see this one in a theater. I like zombie movies, and I like Resident Evil flicks, so I most likely won't mind I Am Legend.

The original was the "Omega Man", right? That was pretty good.

 

[McLaren]

I loved it.

Had a great view on the end of life, & the emptiness and quietness really brings in emotion. There were some sad parts as well.

 

[Pako]

Looking forward to seeing this one. Will Smith has yet to disappoint me.

 

[ExigeEvan]

This does actually look really good, well worth the cinema trip I think.

Looking forward to seeing this one. Will Smith has yet to disappoint me.

I, Robot and Men in Black 2!?

 

[Pako]

What can I say, I grew up with the Fresh Prince.

 

[Solid Lifters]

Looking forward to seeing this one. Will Smith has yet to disappoint me.

Listen to his music. That should do it.

 

[Pako]

Listen to his music. That should do it.

Ok, ok....

 

[Bam]

Saw it two nights ago and in my opinion, not a good movie overall. Great idea though, never read the book or watched Omega Man. I did, however, think it did a great job of creating and maintaining suspense. Also, I'd put it up there with one of Will Smith's better performances, but not quite Enemy of the State status.

 

[McLaren]

What can I say, I grew up with the Fresh Prince.

Same here. I thought i,Robot was pretty good, and just enjoyed MIB2 for his humor.
However, you can really see how far he's come from his Fresh Prince days in I Am Legend.

 

[Dougboy]

Saw it on Friday, Gotta say, i was expecting more. All the other recent Will Smith movies were pretty good. This one was mediocre at best.

 

[Vonie]

I thought this was a pretty good movie. The suspense was definitely there in droves, and it's especially creepy if you've been to NYC. It was kind of one long advertisement for Will Smith, but he's a good actor so it was enjoyable.

 

[a6m5]

Looking forward to seeing this one. Will Smith has yet to disappoint me.

Pako, I've never used the following before, but you just forced me to use both in one post:

OMG, WTF.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Will Smith is one of my favorite actors but this movie just did not live up to my expectations. It was the first Will Smith movie that actually disappointed me a little. It was good but not one I would buy. While I like the Resident Evil movies it just remined me too much of them. The whole viral infection and the way they were just like zombies. Especially the ending.

 

[JosX]

I've never seen a movie with Will Smith that I haven't enjoyed, the ads for this movie look great. Might see it next week

 

[Pako]

Pako, I've never used the following before, but you just forced me to use both in one post:

OMG, WTF.

 

[VEXD]

Its available online right now, though i wouldnt like to tell you the quality.

I just watched the first 5 mins, but managed to switch it off so i can (hopefully) enjoy it in a theatre (thats how we spell it) next week.

Im hoping its not as bad as peeps on here seem to think.

Forget the fact that will "lats" smith is in it, its all about the pretense for me....

👍

 

[F1GTR]

Great idea, crappy execution; Will Smith's character defied logic throughout the entire film. First half of the film was somewhat enjoyable, focusing on how life would be like living in a major city with only a dog for companionship, but then it ended up turning into a crappy 28 Days Later knock off.

 

[McLaren]

Great idea, crappy execution; Will Smith's character defied logic throughout the entire film. First half of the film was somewhat enjoyable, focusing on how life would be like living in a major city with only a dog for companionship, but then it ended up turning into a crappy 28 Days Later knock off.

Wouldn't that make 28 Days Later somewhat a knock off considering I Am Legend's story was written long before then?

 

[F1GTR]

To a point yes, since the book did inspire many zombie films. However, 28 Days did it better. The film doesn't even stay true to the book, where the ending has been Hollywood-ed up into a heroic feel-good kind, which is completely different to the main character's ironic realisation in the novel.

 

[McLaren]

To a point yes, since the book did inspire many zombie films. However, 28 Days did it better. The film doesn't even stay true to the book, where the ending has been Hollywood-ed up into a heroic feel-good kind, which is completely different to the main character's ironic realisation in the novel.

The movie did things a little different. It followed the novel pretty well, but it adapted the ending of The Omega Man in which Robert encounters other survivors and protects them in the end.

Yes, the film did take a different approach to the title's reasoning as the novel called Robert a Legend in the fact he a was mythical creature to the monsters who killed them in their sleep. In the movie though, he is considered a legend due to the fact that he quite possibly saved humanity by finding the cure.

Different takes, but the movie is nothing I would call a knock off of 28 Days Later as 28DL would still be considered a knock off of The Omega Man's ending.

 

[F1GTR]

Different takes, but the movie is nothing I would call a knock off of 28 Days Later as 28DL would still be considered a knock off of The Omega Man's ending.

I said the last 30 minutes of the film ended up being a 28 Days knock off, (and my use of the phrase 'knock off' was exaggeration), except that this time the 'zombies' seem to be parkour experts. The film had almost everything in my eyes: an interesting premise, great cinematography and a solid performance from WS (though the dog was pretty good ). The main thing that it lacked was that the last half hour or so ended up being a zombie flick - not a very good one in that respect, and the ending lacked any real impact; with it just simply loosely tying the title to the story.

 

[McLaren]

I said the last 30 minutes of the film ended up being a 28 Days knock off, (and my use of the phrase 'knock off' was exaggeration), except that this time the 'zombies' seem to be parkour experts. The film had almost everything in my eyes: an interesting premise, great cinematography and a solid performance from WS (though the dog was pretty good ). The main thing that it lacked was that the last half hour or so ended up being a zombie flick - not a very good one in that respect, and the ending lacked any real impact; with it just simply loosely tying the title to the story.

That much we can agree on then. 👍

 

[JosX]

Just seen it, to be honest allot of it was boring, it was just getting good when it ended. I hope there is a sequel, Will Smith has disappointed me for the first time.

Am I the only one that thinks the ending is similar to Terminator?

 

[SS69]

I saw it last night. I loved it. Great suspense. Did a real good job of presenting the lonliness of the charactor. I actually felt really sad for Robert Neville.

I will admit I liked the first half much more than the second. As someone mentioned above, they Hollywood-ed up the second half. I didn't like the way the monsters looked. A little CGI obvious. They were still scary though.

I cant decide if I liked the ending in this better or the ending in the book. I like though how they changed and made it different.

7.5/10. The first half was GREAT. Second half was so-so; didn't ruin the movie but also didn't live up to the first half. Ending was appropriate for the movie I think. Monsters were slightly disappointing.


By the way something I was wondering. I'll try to make this as spoiler free as possible but even so.


SPOILER SPOILER









This is a question for those who have seen the movie obviously. The trap with the mannequin (I think Fred was his name). Did the monsters learn from him and set that trap up, or did that show his bit of insanity and he actually set that trap himself but forgot?

 

[F1GTR]

Well the monsters obviously moved the mannequin, but I think that Robert set the trap up himself and forgot about it.

One thing that left me wondering was how the woman and child got in and out of New York when the bridges were blown up by the military.

 

[JosX]

One thing that left me wondering was how the woman and child got in and out of New York when the bridges were blown up by the military.

There are other ways to get into New York other than bridges, but then again they had a car. It's a movie, it has an excuse

 

[SS69]

They said that they were on a Red Cross ship. Im assuming they drifted ashore.

 

[McLaren]

Just seen it, to be honest allot of it was boring, it was just getting good when it ended. I hope there is a sequel, Will Smith has disappointed me for the first time.

Am I the only one that thinks the ending is similar to Terminator?

A sequel was projected, but the studio gave no answer. I think a sequel would turn one of the first (actually good) remakes in a while into a situation of trying to milk it. I personally hope not.

SPOILER SPOILER









This is a question for those who have seen the movie obviously. The trap with the mannequin (I think Fred was his name). Did the monsters learn from him and set that trap up, or did that show his bit of insanity and he actually set that trap himself but forgot?

They learned it from Robert. The movie touched a bit on evolution in that even though the Infected lost all human traits, they ended up adapting to a Pack way of life, in which they hunted in a pack with a leader, and learned to use what Robert created on one of their own against him.

Basically, they lost all human intelligence, but replaced it with the intelligence of nature's traits of a hunter/pack.