Posted by Geoff December 20, 2007

Or maybe that should be "I am Livid".

When I first saw the trailer for I am Legend I was quite excited at the idea of someone adapting one of my favourite Sci-Fi (ish) books. I know some people were horrified at the thought of Will Smith playing Neville but I think he's a good actor when he's not quipping like a madman - see Six Degrees of Separation, Ali, The Pursuit of Happyness.

So I go and watch the film looking forward to seeing this amazing dystopian future placed in a desolate NYC (depsite the book being California, doh!) and wild animals killing each other on what use to be busy streets.


But oh lord how wrong can you be. As a film it's okay...sort of 28 Days Later with better effects. It looks beautiful, nicely shot, good CGI etc but they've basically ignored the book's best bits and made the title entirely pointless.

 


"I am Legend" the book is superb...how an ordinary bloke, who's a depressive, somehow survives a virus and goes about trying to figure out why he's different. On the way he befriends a dog, has to defend himself against vampires etc. It's brilliant. He, essentially, becomes a mythological to other protagonists you meet later on, hence "legend". I won't say how it ends because that would ruin it.

 


In the film, Will Smith is a leading scientist who owns a dog and drives a flashy car. Yeah...not really true to the book. He has to fight zombies that leap out of the shadows as only film zombies do. Zombies FFS....they're meant to be vampires!


Oh and I won't say how the film ends because that would spoil it but. Although it's sort of the same in terms of what happens to the main characters everything that has preceeded it means it has a totally different effect and removes any meaning from the film's title.


Yours angrily,


Geek Boy

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