Thread: Why would you deliberately screw up I Am Legend?

Ok, so when I am Legend came out. I heard a lot of people say, "End ruins it, what a giant turd of an ending."

So a month ago I went to UPS (7 mile walk) to pick up a package they had failed to deliver. Turns out they are only open 8-9pm for pickups (I went... lul wat?) so I go to borders, buy I am Legend, buy a cup of coffee, and spend an hour or so reading it. Nice book for how short it is. Very different from anything else I have read. Solid progression and character development. I do wonder how they go from an entire first chapter describing a german guy in pretty elaborate detail to Will Smith, but hey, at least he can act. It's not like they cast Adam Sandler or something. So I read it, like it and think... well I've got to see the movie now.
I come to folks for holidays. Folks have all the premium channels. I notice I Am Legend playing. 'OK', says I. I sit down and watch it.

Hmm... He's a scientist... Hmm... family never got sick... Hmm... nothing about his wife other than her dying... no depth to that at all.
Hmm... dog (about 1/3 of the book detailing how he met the dog and their brief time together) is a puppy he took from his kid who's with him the entire movie now. Hmm... vamps don't speak... dont gather at his house... dont have any history with him... dont have two different levels of disease... arent hunted by him (except the occasional research subject... which happened like... twice... in the book). Basically the only similarities are that it's a disease and it makes them want blood. Other than that, there is nothing at all that relates the book to the movie. Then the spy from the vamps turns into a human survivor trying to convince him to run away to a survivor colony with her... and she has a kid.

The ending was just the Dairy Queen swirl atop the soft serve cone of crap that was the butchery of this book. The ONLY good thing was that Smith could act. Every other element of this movie made me hate the screenplay writer with every fiber of my being.

I looked online and found the original ending... saying it's better than the real ending is like saying crabs are better than genital warts.

That is all. Sorry if you liked this movie, but wow... what a way to ruin a decent book.

I wasn't all that impressed with the movie. I see they are running it constantly on all the movie channels now......I still don't want to sit and watch it again or DVR it and I get that stuff for free. Now you've convinced me to read the book.

I totally agree that they screwed up with that movie, and specially with it's end that differs totally from the book.
I can see that it is not easy to make a good movie from a good book, but this was totally low.
Wasn't the first time that this has happened.

For comparison/contrast you should check out the following movies... both based on the book (more or less, lol):

The last Man on Earth (1964)
The Omega Man (1971)

I enjoyed all three though I agree the recent one is a VERY loose interpretation of the book.

Originally Posted by CableDawg

I wasn't all that impressed with the movie.

+1

I'm a dystopian fan, but hate insults to the intelligence and unnecessary CGI which is what ruined the film for me.

So, for those that have read it, is the book great or just better than the movie.

Originally Posted by Frankenstein

+1

I'm a dystopian fan, but hate insults to the intelligence and unnecessary CGI which is what ruined the film for me.

So, for those that have read it, is the book great or just better than the movie.

The book is fantastic
very bleak and desperate
all the movie versions of the book have been completely different to the book itself, I could mention why but that might ruin the book for you
Richard Matheson has distanced himself from the early film

A similar style book that seems like it might have been translated faithfully into a movie is "the Road" by Cormac McCarthy
well worth a read

Alright, it's now number one on my must read list. I'm just finishing War of the Worlds - so back to back dystopias it is!

Thanks

Hm, I'm curious to read the book.

I thought the movie was quite entertaining (for some movies, I'm ok with just entertainment), but naturally I can't compare it to the book because ^

Originally Posted by Frankenstein

Alright, it's now number one on my must read list. I'm just finishing War of the Worlds - so back to back dystopias it is!

Thanks

OK, have finished War of the Worlds, which was fun, and have been to the bookstore and am now in the throes of I am Legend. It's a great read - but I can't get the vision of Charlton out of my mind when reading - which is kind of ruining the book for me. Stupid Charlton.

[QUOTE=JasonC;510599]The book is fantastic very bleak and desperate all the movie versions of the book have been completely different to the book itself, I could mention why but that might ruin the book for you Richard Matheson has distanced himself from the early film
QUOTE]

That is the crux for me. The theme that the book explores is completely ignored in all three movies (each of which is interesting in its own right, as a movie, but each of which refuses to do justice to the book). Like JasonC, I don't want to give it away, but the book, which is a decently-written sci-fi adventure on purely literary grounds, has a thought-provoking twist in perspective as its moral theme.

I think it's fair to say that all three movies simply reject that perspective and take a fairly ordinary "last human against the zombie apocalypse" approach which is precisely the perspective the original book invites you to question. The theme explains the title of the book; the Will Smith version of the movie gets it almost hilariously wrong by interpreting that title as completely opposite its original meaning as could be.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD:

The other thing I disliked about the Smith movie was its dumb and ham-handed political slant. Smith is a military doctor who invents the cure for the vampire disease. The remnants of humanity are living inside a military compound guarded by soldiers. Smith sacrifices himself to save the others. And as others have already noted, a major character is changed from zombie to human, further undercutting the theme of the original novel. It is hard not to read this as an allegory for the "War on Terror" (in much the same way that the original vampire/zombie/alien movies were often metaphors for the Cold War), in which "the troops" are heroic saviors of the "good humans" against the implacable, monstrous hordes who look just like us but want to wipe us out. (Again, this subverts the original book, which simply cannot be read in this sense.) As a movie it's not too bad, but as an interpretation of the original novel it seems to be an exercise in trading introspective nuance for self-congratulatory cliches of the most obvious kind. A true Hollywood triumph.