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The Truth About “I Am Legend”
The box office was rocked by the 2007 hit "I Am Legend" with seven wins and 17 nominations,
but compared to the book, theres a whole lot that director Francis Lawrence missed out on.
“I Am Legend” was no doubt a box office sensation as they would call it. But its hard to notice, after reading the book (which i will try my best not to spoil for you), that there was just too much wrong with the movie’s interpretation. Wrong to the extent that the movie could stand on its own and be completely dissociated from ”I Am Legend”.
It’s become the new Hollywood fad to make a movie, strap a couple of zombies in a post-apocalyptic world with few survivors (preferably Will Smith) and watch it become a box-office hit for no reason at all. That’s not to say ”I Am Legend” was bad, in fact i think it deserved its success, but let me expliain…
The title ”I Am Legend” reminds us of what? Legends are those mythical creatures, like vampires, who wait every day patiently for the sun to set so they can unleash havoc on the peaceful human world. Now, NOTE CAREFULLY that the writer of the novel ”I Am Legend”, dubbed Will Smith the Legend…See where the movie went wrong?
Will Smith went out every morning, heavily armed and ready to do anything possible to kill the infected zombies, AND in the novel, he was actually the last surviving human. Effectively, Will Smith was their legend, HE was the mythical monster that waited until morning everyday so he could come out and haunt their streets, the story was just viewed from his perspective.
BUT, WHY DID THEY SEEM SO ANGRY AT HIM?
At this point i’m going to do something i hate to do, but i’m going to embed an alternate ending (by same director), and if you’ve seen the movie already, you MUST see this ending. (I’d also rather just show you than explain, for the dramatic effect of course).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZTySHgSpBw
The ending reveals the concept of Will Smith being the “legend” to the zombies, whereas the movie didnt seem to touch on that even once. If you find that the movie would have been better with this ending, with the zombies being displayed as affectionate beings after something stolen rather than flesh hungry hunters, then i recommend reading ”I Am Legend” by Richard Matheson.
This is just another piece of evidence that gives justification to the statement that all movies are only suboordinate to the novels they follow.
