Thread: I Am Legend

Twent to see it a short while ago.

Twas good.

Tis all.

Spoiler for Well...:

The first half of the movie was beautifully done. The developement of the plot and characters was top-notch, but it fell apart in the second half...and ill tell you why.

It was the zombies. They went from being believable to being hollywood fluff, and I can't tell you how much it dissapointed me. At first, the zombies were just humans suffering from what seemed to be an extreme form of rabies. They were deranged and violent. It was totally believable, and with the caliber of plot developement that was already in the movie, they were the perfect villian figure of the story.

But then it got cheesy. The zombies became inconsistent. On one hand they were suppsoed to be deranged and insane, as well as completely unreasonable. And yet, they also were smart enough to organize in large groups to set up and execute sophistcated traps for will smith?

Please.

And yet, even though they found out how to pillage will smith's fortified home (equipped with UV lights, remote detonated c-4, numerous guns, and metal doors) by going in through the roof, and eventhough they found out how to trick and capture will smith with that ingenious trap involving a manican...why don't they don't know how to use guns...to or protect themselves from the day light so that they don't have to resort to lurking around at night?

It was retarded. They either needed to make the zombies deranged and insane, or clever...but not both at the same time, it doesn't make sense.

And to top it off, these deteriorating people developed super human abilities...like being able to jump 30 feet in the air for some reason, being able to climb walls like spiders...or being able to toss a 180 pound person with their mouth. It just got cheesy. They didn't need to make the zombies smart to make them a formidable villian in the movie. They didn't need to make them superhuman either. And even if they really wanted to go that way, they can't be brain dead and smarter than a solider/scientist at the same time...c'mon.

They fucked up the movie by cheesing up the zombies. Thats about it. And I'm pissed because the movie had SOOO much potential. Im talking academy awards...but not now. It such a shame.

I saw it yesterday and thought it was awesome.

Ethen, I understand your argument, but here is how I saw it. The zombies were stupid overall, but they had that one smart leader who was in control. Remember he saw Duvall set the trap for the zombie girl? He learned how to do it and set his own for Duvall. He was like the "brains" of the group. And the reason they could "jump 30 feet in the air" (an exaggeration, I don't remember anything of the sort, but they WERE pretty damn strong) is that their adrenaline glands were constantly open.

Originally Posted by 27

I loved it! Although I could'nt figure out how he had running water.

Yeah, a few things were kind of strange. Like, how exactly did lions end up in New York City? (I guess they might have escaped from a zoo, but it's still kind of weird).

Originally Posted by MontyFlatts

Ethen, I understand your argument, but here is how I saw it. The zombies were stupid overall, but they had that one smart leader who was in control. Remember he saw Duvall set the trap for the zombie girl? He learned how to do it and set his own for Duvall. He was like the "brains" of the group. And the reason they could "jump 30 feet in the air" (an exaggeration, I don't remember anything of the sort, but they WERE pretty damn strong) is that their adrenaline glands were constantly open.

Yeah, I understand how the leader learned how to do the trap (by watching Duvall), but even that requires quite a bit of intelligence to do. It’s like he was really smart and really dumb at the same time. He figured out how to trick/trap Duvall, he figured out how to penetrate his fortress, but he couldn't figure out how to use a gun? Or how to be outside in the day time?

Anyway, the smart "leader" figure isn't that big of an issue I suppose, and could have been an awesome addition to the story if that character was handled more tastefully...mostly my gripe is with the superhuman abilities of these zombies.

The stuff they were doing couldn't be the result of adrenaline, like scaling the brick walls of Duvall’s house like Spiderman (or the other things I mentioned). The 30 feet was an exaggeration, but mainly what I was referring to was how the zombies could leap to the top of a light poles in a single bound, jump up a couple flights of stairs in a single bound, bounce off walls like the laws of physics no longer applied, etc.

That kind of stuff killed the realism in my opinion, and made what could have been a completely realistic scenario into hokey fantasy (like insane, slightly stronger than normal zombies aren't enough...they have to inflate it beyond believability for shock value)...and what’s worse is that there was no reason to have to resort to that. It was a great movie up until that sort of stuff began to happen, and could have been just as exciting and just as suspenseful without it, if not better.

Then there were other little things...like how Duvall was able to knock out that female zombie with the butt of his gun, but at the end when the leader was smashing head first into the bullet proof glass, he wasn't phased at all...or how suddenly the other "dumb" zombies knew exactly what the smart zombie wanted them to do with his incoherent screams...its was kind of stupid. It would have been much better if there was a lone smart zombie who was trying to kill Duvall instead of a leader zombie who somehow had control over the other mindless zombies. Little differences like that could have made the movie so much better. The movie was so close to an A++ flick, but fizzled out at the end and seemed to replace good story writing with flashy, superficial special effects.

Anyway, it was still a good movie. But it was almost an excellent movie, which is what make those little flaws seem so much bigger. In a less-good movie, those same flaws wouldn't be a big deal at all. But they seemed so blatant and out-of-place in a movie of that caliber. It was like almost having an orgasm...it would have been less frustrating if the movie was only that good the whole time, as opposed to starting off great and letting me down in the end. It lifted my expectations only to bring them down harder.

I do agree with a lot of what you're saying. I guess they felt they had to sacrifice realism for excitement. I'm not trying to argue, just to provide explanations:

Originally Posted by ethen

Or how to be outside in the day time?

UV rays burned them. Duvall did a test on that zombie girl, zapping her with UV to see if she was improving.

The stuff they were doing couldn't be the result of adrenaline, like scaling the brick walls of Duvall’s house like Spiderman.

Some of them were falling off, that made it seem slightly more realistic. I agree with you here though.

Then there were other little things...like how Duvall was able to knock out that female zombie with the butt of his gun, but at the end when the leader was smashing head first into the bullet proof glass, he wasn't phased at all

Zombies would all be different, just like all humans are different. You can't expect an 18 year old girl to be the same as a brute twice her size.

Originally Posted by MontyFlatts

I do agree with a lot of what you're saying. I guess they felt they had to sacrifice realism for excitement. I'm not trying to argue, just to provide explanations:



UV rays burned them. Duvall did a test on that zombie girl, zapping her with UV to see if she was improving.

But the zombie knows how to bait and trap a scientist/solider after only seeing it such a trap utilized once..but can't figure out how to protect his skin by wearing clothes, and perhaps wear sunglasses to protect his eyes or something? The zombie was smart enough to figure out how to penetrate his fortified house, even though the house was equipped with metal shutters, several guns, several UV spot lights, and remote controlled C-4 Explosives....but can figure out how to shoot a gun?

Is he smart or is he incognizant?? One second he's out-strategizing a scientist/military general...the next second he's a deranged brute with an IQ of a rabbid pitbull. He's clever enough to foil Duvall's plans, yet lacks even the most basic intellegence. Its like they were trying to make the zombies dangerous in two incompatible ways: 1) by making them insane killing machines who cannot be reasoned with, and 2) by making them clever enough to give a heavily armed solider/scientist a run for his money...

Originally Posted by MontyFlatts

Zombies would all be different, just like all humans are different. You can't expect an 18 year old girl to be the same as a brute twice her size.

yeah, i suppose.

Originally Posted by ethen

But the zombie knows how to bait and trap a scientist/solider after only seeing it such a trap utilized once..but can't figure out how to protect his skin by wearing clothes, and perhaps wear sunglasses to protect his eyes or something? The zombie was smart enough to figure out how to penetrate his fortified house, even though the house was equipped with metal shutters, several guns, several UV spot lights, and remote controlled C-4 Explosives....but can figure out how to shoot a gun?

Is he smart or is he incognizant?? One second he's out-strategizing a scientist/military general...the next second he's a deranged brute with an IQ of a rabbid pitbull. He's clever enough to foil Duvall's plans, yet lacks even the most basic intellegence. Its like they were trying to make the zombies dangerous in two incompatible ways: 1) by making them insane killing machines who cannot be reasoned with, and 2) by making them clever enough to give a heavily armed solider/scientist a run for his money...

I've been reading your posts concerning this and they bother me a bit. Think about it this way. Maybe they are smart enough to realize clothes and sunglasses would provide them protection, but they are also smart enough to realize that by staying in their element (IE darkness) they will keep an advantage whereas wearing a bunch of bulky clothes would slow them down and make them prime targets.

Vampires are smart and still don't go out in the light, for example.

The UV lights, the C-4, and the metal shutters; well, the UV lights are a no brainer. They burned, so they jumped on them or at them and took them down so the burn went away. Even an idiot would understand that destroying the source of pain alleviates the pain, so regardless of their intelligence that is an understandable tactic.

The c-4, they didn't evade that. They got their asses blown apart, some didn't and they kept up the attack. There is an entire city, New York City no less, full of these things, presumably, so the ones lost to C-4 were really nothing. About the metal shutters, I got nothing on that right now.

They say many genius's are insane, by the way.

I see their intelligence as more of an animal cunning with traces of human intelligence left over, which would allow them to observe their prey and set a trap for their prey, as they did. Obviously observing their prey is no problem at all, as they can and are still awake during the day time it would seem. The stalking/observing is shown in how they track the lady to his house and the being awake during the day is shown by the fact that they could not have gathered/"planned" that attack the way they did between the few minutes left at dawn and the few minutes they had before the attack just after dusk.

If you want to see other examples of animal cunning overwhelming far better equipped soldiers, look at the game Starcraft. The Zerg are cunning animals that overwhelm their enemies by throwing countless friendlies are the soldiers until they just can't take it and are beaten down. The main character knew from the start that if they found out where he lived that there would be no end to their assault until he was dead. There is no way in hell he could take them all down, hence why he didn't want them tracking the car to his house so much so that he even warned her despite his condition at the time.

Anywayyy...that's how I see's it. Upon further thought, I find that I did really enjoy the movie even though it felt like it should have gone into more detail about some things.

Yeah, I dunno. I really wanted that movie to be awesome, and even tried convincing myself differently about the things that bothered me initially, as you are trying to do right now. I just couldn't do it. There is a distinct and abrupt shift in realism about halfway through the movie that completely shatters the illusion of the movie.

The only way I can really describe it is in likeness to art. When someone creates a painting of a landscape for example, they are creating a sort of reality. Now, a painting of a landscape doesn't have to be photo-realistic in order for it to be "convincing", it just has to be "seamless" in the sense that there is nothing in the picture that contradicts itself.

When you are able to do this, you can paint a landscape (or whatever) in almost any manner that you want, and it will still seem convincing, like impressionism for example. The only reason the splotchiness doesn't seem to be a marker of artificiality is because the whole painting is seamless in its "splotchiness". When an artistic creation is seamless, we are able to momentarily suspend our belief and really let our selves be "convinced" of the reality that is in front of us. Take a movie like shrek for example. The graphics aren't so good that we can't distinguish what is computer animated and what isn't. But since everything has that same sort of cartoony aesthetic, it seems natural, it seems believable.

The problem with this movie is that there is a big fat seam running right down the middle of it. It begins very realistically...in fact; we don't really have to suspend our belief at all in order to be convinced of the "reality" of the plot:

-A scientist reprograms a virus in order to target and cure cancer (this sort of thing is actually happening these days), and it goes wrong. There isn't anything so unbelievable in that notion that you have to "loosen" your standards of what is realistic in order to "buy it".

-They quarantine NYC and society begins to break down...also very realistic in itself.

-99% of the population dies, leaving only 1% of survivors. Again, very possible, but as you can see, they are easing the audience into the reality they are creating by gradually presenting more and more fiction into the plot...but are doing so smoothly enough as to not interrupt our suspended belief.

-Of the 1%, most are these rabid human-ish things that go around feasting on the few healthy survivors that remain. One of these survivors is Duvall, and you see how he manages his everyday life in such conditions. Again, because of the incremental progression of the level of fiction, this doesn't seem all that far-fetched.

*That’s where the level of fiction should have begun to level off*

Instead, the writers got a bit carried away with the zombies. The progression of the increasing level of fiction breaks away from the pace set in the first half of the movie, which in turn breaks the illusion of the movie. When the zombies start acting more fantastical than mere infected humans with hopped up adrenaline glands and UV sensitivity, you snap out of the "trance" the movie lures you into. You suddenly realize "oh yeah, this is a fictional movie".

That moment of lucidity when watching a film, unlike in a dream, is not a good thing. A sign of a good movie is one that captures you, one that gets you sucked in. The movie became too unbelievable too quickly for the illusion to be seamless. Now, if the movie had that same level of fiction the whole time, or if it transitioned more smoothly, that stuff wouldn't have broken the illusion. But it began as one level of reality and abruptly shifted to another, less believable reality.

Its like seeing a realistic drawing of a face right next to a photo of the same face. Only when there is that inconsistency do you really notice the "artificiality" of the drawing...whereas if you were to have seen that same drawing apart from the photo, it would have seemed much more realistic and convincing.

Did that make any sense?

It does make sense. I think the big 'seam' running down the middle of the movie would have been less 'visible' if, as I briefly touched on in my last post, the movie had gone a little more in depth on certain things which would have been that 'easing into' thing you mentioned, as far as what the infected ones could and couldn't do. 90-ish minutes for that movie wasn't long enough, I could have easily seen it going into two hours and having been awesome still.

I have to agree with what ethen is saying. When those zombies set the trap that just blew me out of my trance-like state. I was like "wtf they can set traps? Oh yeah, I'm watching a movie."

Originally Posted by ethen

Yeah, I dunno. I really wanted that movie to be awesome,

No. You went into that theatre just looking to cause trouble.

Warning (as if this still needs to be said): *May contain spoilers*

Just got done watching it. I really enjoyed it, but I'm with Ethen on alot of what he said. A little "attention to detail" would have made this movie so much better. Even if it just meant explaining things a little better, rather than completely omitting things. The trap thing really got me. Someone else on another forum brought up the possibility that he set it himself and, in his pending dementia, forgotten he'd place the trap there, but that didn't make sense to me. I guess I go with that they were able to set the trap after seeing him set one, but still...given the context of everything that was shown and said about the "creatures," that just seemed implausible.

Overall, it was a very entertaining movie, and I definitely liked it, but there were just way too many "..." moments, by the end, for them not to stand out to me. As far as intensity, though, I was definitely on the edge of my seat, during most of it. It is a great popcorn flick that, I agree, could have been so much more than it is. I'm going back over it now to make sure I didn't really miss anything that didn't stand out to me, the first time.

You know, I just noticed that, when he first notices Fred standing in the road, Fred's head actually turns and looks at the camera. It was very very subtle, but it's pretty creepy.

Originally Posted by Oneironaut

You know, I just noticed that, when he first notices Fred standing in the road, Fred's head actually turns and looks at the camera. It was very very subtle, but it's pretty creepy.

Wait, what scene are you talking about? I don't seem to remember that.

Originally Posted by M-Cat

Wait, what scene are you talking about? I don't seem to remember that.

When Neville and Sam are driving around, and he stops because he see's Fred standing in the middle of the road. (The trap).

This is what it looks like when he first notices Fred.


In that same shot, when the music goes (Booom), Fred's head turns Just Slightly, from like 45 degrees to the right, looking away from the camera, to looking straight at the camera.


Even in the stills, you can barely tell the difference, but you can actually see it turn, watching the scene. At least, it looks that way to me. If that's what happens, I figure it to just be a product of his imagination. I dunno. Someone brought it up, and that's what I see everytime I watch it. I don't think my eyes are playing tricks on me. If so...it's freakin weird, because I see it move every time.

Ok I know what you're talking about. During the movie, I thought he was saying "friend" and not "Fred" so that's why I was confused.

And yeah, I kind of noticed that too. It could definitely be Neville's mind playing tricks on him. Or, it might just be a directing mistake

I doubt it would be a mistake, because they would actually have to put something inside the mannequin to make it move. It was just two perfect, coinciding with the ominous (boom), when Neville got his first look at Fred in the and then you see Fred's head eerily, slowly, turn to face Neville.

If that was a directing mistake, it definitely made that scene. I don't think it was, though.

I don't even recall noticing that. At the time I was just sorta.."wtf, who is that? How'd he get there?"

Yeah, I noticed that too, right away when I watched it. It really creeped me out at first, because I thought it was a real person.
Then when I found out it was just the manikin. I thought I must have just imagined his head turning. Glad you saw that too. Now I know it wasn't just me.

Someone told me, that they thought the trap thing was about him underestimating the intelligence of the mutants. and that when he kidnapped the Alfa female. they used is own tricks on him.

that kind of makes sense. But I'm thinking, if they had that much thought process left. Why were they still so crazy and out of control? Maybe that will be answered in the sequel.

Makes me want to read the book to find out what's really going on.

Yeah, I heard that, in the book, the "creatures" are actually much more intelligent and interesting, and that there is actually much more depth in their relationship to Neville, and how they interact with him. Just hearing that, alone, makes me want to pick up the book.

I'm going to read it for sure. sounds cool.

There's a sequel coming up? wtf

It's gonna sux.

Originally Posted by Wake_Me

There's a sequel coming up? wtf

It's gonna sux.

I don't know. I just said that because they make a sequel to everything. And I will be surprised if this one does not get one as well.

But I'm thinking it would actually be better. giving you a better understanding of what's going on. And probably a lot more action. I enjoyed the first one. but it was just so slow moving and not much action until the end.

And these are some pretty scary creatures. I think they are worth using in more movies.

Originally Posted by Caradon

I don't know. I just said that because they make a sequel to everything. And I will be surprised if this one does not get one as well.

Somehow, I didn't get a "sequel coming up" kind of vibe from this movie. But you never know.

I liked the movie. I was blown away by the scene where he had to kill his dog.