I AM LEGEND
POSTED BY: reginaroadie
UPDATED: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 00:30
VIEWED: 6835
PAGE 4 of 5
Thanks for the reviews (which I read with one eye closed just in case
), I NEED to see this soon!!!
Didn't really expect the book Chrisisall
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Hilarious. I did see the poster, but I missed the other thing! They really put a lot of detail into creating the landscape. Probably the best depiction on film of a post-apocalyptic world I’ve seen.
Originally posted by thatweirdgirl:
Oh yeah, future New York looked great. You're right, the monsters did look like something out of a game.Select to view spoiler:
Did you see the movie poster in future New York? The really awesome Bats and Supes feature? Less exciting was the idea that in 2009 gas will be almost $7.
Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.
Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.
-- Cicero
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Thanks for the review.
Though with respect to CGI, these days poor artwork is ussually down to the artist or unrealistic deadlines, than flaws in the system...
More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by citizen:
Thanks for the review.
Though with respect to CGI, these days poor artwork is ussually down to the artist or unrealistic deadlines, than flaws in the system...
I heard from some guys that worked as PAs on the movie, that they planned to do make-up creatures, but didn't like the test shots, and decided to go the all-CGI monster route relatively late in the game, which led to the less-than-stellar animation.
"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I just watched I Am Legend this morning and the very first thing I noticed was the bad CGI. Why oh why do some moviemakers insist on 100% animated human action? The infected in this movie were just as bad as Jar-Jar.
CGI should be used for still shots and animating "inanimate" stuff. I recall the very first time I watched the firefly pilot episode and was very impressed with the CGI that animated the floating derelict scraps when the crew boosts the cargo. Later when I had just about memorized every corner of each episode I found myself furtherly impressed with other CGI triumphs...such as the animations needed for the holoimager in Ariel, and the docking screen in the pilot episode when Mal delivers his "King of londinium" speech.
There have been some good CGI improvements of human action in the past though...don't get me wrong. A perfect example is the Mouth of Sauron in the extended scene from Return of the King. Here you have a real actor who is filmed normaly before CGI enhancements make him really creppy. That's what I Am Legend should have done. Use actors to play infected then CGI enhance things that make them scary...like the hyperventilations. But you can't CGI them into leaping/jumping freaks. I would have much prefered infected that resembled more agressive Resident Evil zombies with some CGI improvements.
And don't misunderstand, I thought the resident evil films were terrible, I just needed an example.
And by the by, one of my previews was Batman Dark Knight. The Heath Ledger as Joker looks awsome. The teaser ended with some wonderfully insane joker laughter that sent chills.
Do not fear me. Our's is a peaceful race and we must live in harmony.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I don't know, Gollum was pretty good. Beowulf's CGI was too, it was obviously CGI, but then the whole film was CGI so animator and render time would have dictated a loss of realism.
More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Well, I finally saw I AM LEGEND today. It's amazing how after three times (four if you count the crappy knock-off direct to video I AM OMEGA), they still can't get all of it right. I mean, the overwhelming isolation of an empty city on one man trying to do the impossible in finding a cure they get right. And Will Smith does have some moments of desperation and insanity that the book has. But yeah the CG monsters didn't look all that great. And they still do the OMEGA MAN ending of self-sacrifice and hope for the future.
But I read the books ending. And that ending is truly awesome. It's makes the entire book the book. To not do it is kind of a cop-out. And no ADR voice over can truly fix that and properly tie in the title.
**************************************************
"And it starts with a sentence that might last a lifetime, or it all might just go down in flames. If I let you know me, then why would you want me? Each day I don't is a shame. Each day I don't is a great shame."
Loudon Wainwright III - "Strange Weirdos" off the "Knocked Up" soundtrack
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by reginaroadie:
But I read the books ending. And that ending is truly awesome. It's makes the entire book the book. To not do it is kind of a cop-out.
Yup. You got it.
The end of the book is so well done. The graphic version does a good job at the end too. What a great concept: that the last human views the infected (vampires in the book) as the outsiders and that he's the last real human; and that they view the same thing in reverse and that HE is the thing to be feared. I liked how the final panels conveyed the meaning of the book with the sitting down, and the head slump before the words "I am Legend". Well done.
This film lost all of that. It had high points in conveying the emptyness of the world without humanity and Will Smith showed masterful acting abilities during the breakdown in the video store. (bravo Will) The story makes it's about face around the time the girl shows up with the kid (What were they doing out at night anyway? Never explained)
A better movie would have combined elements from the book with what the film did right. Will explains that 90% of humanity died upon infection. Of the remaining 600 million 588mil became the crazed infected monsters and 12 mil are immune. I would have done it this way: 588mil are infected and crazed: 12 mill are infected but higher functioning like the vampire race in the book. Will is the 1 man on earth that's immune due to his work with the virus and an immunity he gained by a fluke due to exposure to a previously mutated strain that made him sick but didn't kill him. (again...similar explanition to the one given in the book)
Now you can set up the story condition where the girl is sent by the new society to find Will because they heard his AM radio broadcasts. And you can then take the movie to it's glorious end where he becomes a legend. As a final element to make the film great...establish to the audience that Will's character always wanted to be great...a legend in biology. To be the man that actually cured cancer...a true human legend. Repeat this theme throughout the film as he goes insane, as a mocking reversal of what he wanted. Then at the very end of the film allow the book's events to transpire so as to bring about his observation a new world order that fears him. We then end with the ironic twist as he achieves his dream and narrates the final line: I AM LEGEND.
Truely a great movie. If done right, one of the best of all time.
But no we don't get Joss Whedon caliber movies.
Do not fear me. Our's is a peaceful race and we must live in harmony.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Totally agree with what you laid out. But I wouldn't do the whole "always wanted to be a legend" bit and that he was somehow responsible for the virus. That to me seems a bit too convenient. I LOVED the opening with the news interview with the Emma Thompson character. And I like that while he didn't start it, he was the one chosen and looked to to fix it. It explained why he hasn't given up yet. That he feels this obligation to be the one who comes up with the cure.
But yeah. Keep everything up to Robert waking up to the second time he walks in on SHREK, and do what you described, and you'd have the perfect adaptation of the book.
**************************************************
"And it starts with a sentence that might last a lifetime, or it all might just go down in flames. If I let you know me, then why would you want me? Each day I don't is a shame. Each day I don't is a great shame."
Loudon Wainwright III - "Strange Weirdos" off the "Knocked Up" soundtrack
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I gotta add this final tidbit about Will Smith. I watched him in The Pursuit of Happyness" (yes that is the spelling) and now this movie. He is quickly becoming for me one of the great actors of this generation. I never would have said this in the 90's with movies like Wild Wild West and Independance day to cite. But I find my opinions changing now.
The sequences when he yells at his manaquin "friend" and later holds Sam are very strong. The oscar caliber moment for Will is his breakdown in the video store. I almost cried.
Do not fear me. Our's is a peaceful race and we must live in harmony.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME