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I Am Legend
Apr. 28th, 2012 11:43 amNow here's a weird one for you. It pretty much goes halfway toward being the anti-Will-Smith movie, having Big Willie kill a dog and hit on a department store mannequin, but then at the end it descends into crowd-pleasing mediocrity. These days, I suppose its internet cache has been determined by Cracked and TV Tropes having railed against the newer, more explosion-y ending; maybe we can get That Guy With The Glasses to call bullshit and seal the deal. This downvoting is a good thing, I Am Legend deserves to serve as a cautionary tale, a good movie that at the last minute backed down.
See, in the original ending, Smith's Robert Neville realizes that the vampire (oh, sorry, Darkseeker--*cringe*) he's captured to experiment on is the mate of the vampire that's been antagonizing him. By releasing her, he ends hostilities with the vampires and is allowed to leave the city in peace.
Here's another odd thing. This ending leaves the door open for a sequel, which they actually tried to make for a bit (as a prequel. I Am Legend: Failing At Experiments?). And they changed it to him dying. They also didn't say they were a remake of Omega Man, which you'd think would be better for "branding purposes" or whatevs. See, it's a little bit non-Hollywood, but wrapped up in all this Hollywood bullshit.
In the new ending, Neville just realizes--something, and decides to sacrifice himself for the hot chick and cute kid he met ten minutes ago. So he grabs a grenade and pulls the pin, killing everyone in the room and demonstrating a fundamental misunderstanding of how grenades work. Coming off Outlaw Vern's review, I would say that both endings are theist. In the original, the vampire paints a butterfly on the glass door between them, prompting Neville to notice the butterfly tattoo on his captive and flashback to his daughter saying "Look at the butterfly." So you could read some God into that, given Alice Braga's scene earlier stating she believed God had a plan, but you could chalk it up to serendipity, the universe, coincidence, whatever.
The new ending is more explicit. The vampire is mindlessly striking the glass and the cracks form a butterfly, prompting Neville to see a butterfly tattoo on Alice Braga and hatch the grenade-fail plan, telling her "I'm listening." Presumably to God. I kinda wonder how that conversation went.
God: Hey Neville, sorry about the dead kid shit. I know you gave to the United Way.
Neville: It's cool. So what's the plan? Should I make peace with my enemies, forgive their trespasses against me, and turn the other cheek?
God: What? Fuck no! Grab a bomb and blow those fuckers up.
Neville: Wow, so God advocates blowing myself and others to smithereens? I guess bin Laden was onto something...
It reminds me of Clash of the Titans, where they pretty much rewrote the movie in the editing bay to change Zeus from a villain to Yahweh. So you got this Sam Worthington = Jesus plot where God, in this equation, raped someone. I really don't think there should've been an audience for that, aside from Garth Ennis, but okay.
Anyway, moral of the story: If you're going to make a nonconventional Hollywood thriller, go all the way or not at all. Either have Will Smith say "Now that's what I'm talking about!" as he nukes himself or actually end your sci-fi movie with a challenging idea and faithfulness to the novel.
See, in the original ending, Smith's Robert Neville realizes that the vampire (oh, sorry, Darkseeker--*cringe*) he's captured to experiment on is the mate of the vampire that's been antagonizing him. By releasing her, he ends hostilities with the vampires and is allowed to leave the city in peace.
Here's another odd thing. This ending leaves the door open for a sequel, which they actually tried to make for a bit (as a prequel. I Am Legend: Failing At Experiments?). And they changed it to him dying. They also didn't say they were a remake of Omega Man, which you'd think would be better for "branding purposes" or whatevs. See, it's a little bit non-Hollywood, but wrapped up in all this Hollywood bullshit.
In the new ending, Neville just realizes--something, and decides to sacrifice himself for the hot chick and cute kid he met ten minutes ago. So he grabs a grenade and pulls the pin, killing everyone in the room and demonstrating a fundamental misunderstanding of how grenades work. Coming off Outlaw Vern's review, I would say that both endings are theist. In the original, the vampire paints a butterfly on the glass door between them, prompting Neville to notice the butterfly tattoo on his captive and flashback to his daughter saying "Look at the butterfly." So you could read some God into that, given Alice Braga's scene earlier stating she believed God had a plan, but you could chalk it up to serendipity, the universe, coincidence, whatever.
The new ending is more explicit. The vampire is mindlessly striking the glass and the cracks form a butterfly, prompting Neville to see a butterfly tattoo on Alice Braga and hatch the grenade-fail plan, telling her "I'm listening." Presumably to God. I kinda wonder how that conversation went.
God: Hey Neville, sorry about the dead kid shit. I know you gave to the United Way.
Neville: It's cool. So what's the plan? Should I make peace with my enemies, forgive their trespasses against me, and turn the other cheek?
God: What? Fuck no! Grab a bomb and blow those fuckers up.
Neville: Wow, so God advocates blowing myself and others to smithereens? I guess bin Laden was onto something...
It reminds me of Clash of the Titans, where they pretty much rewrote the movie in the editing bay to change Zeus from a villain to Yahweh. So you got this Sam Worthington = Jesus plot where God, in this equation, raped someone. I really don't think there should've been an audience for that, aside from Garth Ennis, but okay.
Anyway, moral of the story: If you're going to make a nonconventional Hollywood thriller, go all the way or not at all. Either have Will Smith say "Now that's what I'm talking about!" as he nukes himself or actually end your sci-fi movie with a challenging idea and faithfulness to the novel.
