I, Legend.

[theweaselking]

If you are the kind of person who thought that Will Smith Versus The Robots was a good adaptation, you will probably enjoy Will Smith Versus The Vampire People.

If, however, you have ever read the book, or if the name "Richard Matheson" means *anything* to you, you should not see this movie. It is crap.

They were obviously *building* towards the book's ending. They foreshadowed it. They hinted at it. Events happened in the film that make absolutely no sense, except in the revealing light of the book's ending.

And then they cut the book's ending, entirely.

And so there's a good dozen WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT moments that simply don't make any sense at all, and a lame-assed, BORING ending in place of the classic.

Two thumbs way, way, way down. Minus five stars. Worse than Revenge Of The Sith.

(But if you go see it in Imax, you do get the first six minutes of The Dark Knight, on the giant screen)

Comments

[eididdy.livejournal.com]

To cheer you up, I give you Cloned, Glow-in-the-Dark Kittens

No, seriously.

[fearmeforiampink]

I enjoyed Will Smith vs Robots. It wasn't very good, but it was fun to watch. The fact I was watching it on broadcast TV rather than DVD probably helped.

[goblinpaladin.livejournal.com]

Now, whether to agree with you or theferret... I think I shall compromise by reading the book, and then watching the first 2/3 of the film.

[publius1.livejournal.com]

Clash of the Rodents!

[kindofstrange.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the trailer alone was enough to tell me that this is nothing like the novella. It's a damn shame, as the story could have made a great, personal movie if done correctly.

But no, Hollywoodize it!

[torrain.livejournal.com]

The movie *was* very much like the novella, and was a great personal movie with lovely characterization and smashing acting and beautiful acknowledgment of theme. They swapped around some mechanical details, but really, the only important difference I saw from Matheson's writing is that Neville is actually somewhat likeable, rather than a tantrumy asshole. If it'd kept its tone through the last five minutes, I'd've been busy looking for a way to put a preorder on the DVD instead of howling with frustration.

And then they chopped off the end and had a ragged bleeding stump of a senseless Hollywood ending smarmed onto it and I could've wept with sheer frustration.

(I hear rumours that the ending was taked on sometime in the last month, and that two other endings were filmed. I really want to see those, just on the strength of the movie until they screwed it up at the very end.)

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

No, he pretty much agrees with me on everything, except that he thinks it was an "okay" movie with that ending, whereas I think it was a "terrible" movie with that ending.

And there's a secret to my movie rating system: Bad movies can be bad, but they'll never get the lowest possible ratings from me. The lowest ratings are reserved for movies that *could have been* great, and then fuck it up with sophomoric mistakes.

Like, say, *everything about the changed ending after foreshadowing the original one*.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I linked it a few days ago. But they're neat.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

I really think you can watch the first 9/10ths of the movie, and skim the first three-quarters of the book. I've read it and I like it and the movie was pretty clearly made by someone familiar with it, but I do feel that the early chunks of the book are very much idea-driven and it's hard to get involved with the character.

*bouncing in*

[torrain.livejournal.com]

It had less shrieking plot holes than this movie, and did not portray its themes quite as well. Generally a serviceable and engaging action movie that kind of took a worst-case scenario out of Asimov's setting, ran madly away with it, and didn't have much to do with I, Robot beyond the Three Laws, the title, and some of the names.

(Also, it was reviewed by a lot of people who apparently either weren't paying attention or weren't familiar with the source material. I swear, I hear *one* more complaint about Susan Calvin seeming oddly cold and restrained...)

This movie, by the way, would not have had any shrieking plot holes that I can spot if they hadn't gone with what felt like an incredibly tacked-on ending that had nothing to do with the movie up until that point.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

There was nothing really wrong with it, beyond the blatant product placements complete with name-check by the main character. It simply had nothing to do with any of the source material, in the slightest.

It turned into a Perfectly Acceptable Action movie. It was simply a completely miserable *adaptation* of "I, Robot".

Will Smith Versus The Vampire People, however, was a *terrible* movie wrapped around a miserable adaptation of "I Am Legend". And the most terrible part was that it fools you for the first 85% of the movie into thinking that it won't be crap, and then it steps forward and spends 15 minutes shiting all over the rest of the movie AND the audience.

And this ending, which sucks so much and offends the audience so much and ruins the whole rest of the movie?

It doesn't fit.

It doesn't make ANY sense.

It leaves *dozens* of massive logical holes in the script. It wastes a good 25 minutes of screen time that was used, previously in the film, to set up a *completely different ending*.

And it's boring.

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard of the movie before maybe two days ago, so natch, I haven't followed the production at all. Maybe were they planning on filming the 'good' ending but ran out of money or something?

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

Take that back! Weasels aren't rodents!

[eididdy.livejournal.com]

Well dammit.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

Firend of mind mentioned a rumour that they'd filmed two endings, and that the one in the theatre was tacked on perhaps a month before the movie came out. (Which is really about what it feels like.)

I realize it's a rumour, but it seems more plausible--I mean, if you've spent three years trying to get a movie done one way or another, and I Am Legend has been kicking around that long, I imagine you'd organize the scenes in order of how important they were and film the ones you really needed first, regardless of where they fell in the movie.

[boixboi.livejournal.com]

The Last Man on Earth is one of my favorite movies of all time.

[xrmndml.livejournal.com]

I loved the book. I wanted to see the movie until now.

But I liked Revenge of the Sith.

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

Fuck Will Smith and fuck raping good books.

[anivair.livejournal.com]

You may consider your icon yoinked. Brilliant.

[anivair.livejournal.com]

the problem, of course, is that the novella would have made a terribly boring movie. great novella. brilliant, but not a good movie. this, I hear, makes a good movie till the ending, at which point you realize that they should have made a movie "inspired by" the novella and just ignored the whole thing and made an ending that made sense.

[kafziel.livejournal.com]

entirely off-topic: This seems like the sort of thing you'd have interest in. (http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9834495-38.html)

[autobotsrollout.livejournal.com]

1.) Will Smith Versus The Robots is actually a pretty straightforward adaptation of one of the Asimov stories ("The Evitable Conflict"), with an action ending, as well as echoing a bunch of others over the course of the movie. It's certainly more actiony than anything Asimov wrote, but... it's a movie, what were people expecting?

2.) The ending for Will Smith Versus The Vampire People is, by all accounts, a reshoot after the original ending, supposedly darker, tested extremely poorly with audiences. So blame America.

[kindofstrange.livejournal.com]

Based directly off of the novella, true, it would have been a rather boring 'Cast Away' + vampires mix-up. I still think they could have kept the more suburbia type setting and made it work.

I've heard the same thing from just about everyone that's seen it thus far, which means I'll probably end up watching it and just preparing myself for whatever seems to be making everyone spazz out in the end.

[kindofstrange.livejournal.com]

Ah, good deal. The trailers led me to believe that it was going to be a very typical cheap scare, o-so-badass popcorn flick. It's nice to hear it's actually got some of the personalization and characterization of the story.

I'll probably have to see it, even knowing that the ending is evidently tripe.

[jl-williams.livejournal.com]

If it makes you feel better, I hadn't heard of it until I saw your comment here. :)