Okay, so they didn't film the book. I knew that going in, but I was prepared to enjoy the special effects, which I did. Digression: The first movie I remember having seen that used a deserted New York as a backdrop was long ago. It was The World, the Flesh, and the Devil, and it starred Harry Belafonte and Inger Stevens. It impressed the heck out of me. End of digression. I was impressed by the deserted city in this movie, too. There are some great shots of the empty streets filled with abandoned cars and the wrecked bridges you can see in the poster.The mutants were okay, even if they weren't the vampires of the novel, but only okay. Some of the CGI work was pretty lousy. Will Smith is good, though, and so is the dog.
The movie's ending sure isn't the book's ending, and I didn't much care for it. In fact, the whole second half of the movie seemed rushed, as if they'd just decided, what the heck, let's get it over with.
11 comments:
I agree, there was a jarring changeup of pacing. as soon as wossername and her little friend showed up.
Argh, hit send to soon...
Still, a great performance by Smith.
After I, ROBOT I was thinking "well Smith just can't play heavy or dark" but this one and ALI proved me wrong.
I haven't seen this one yet. I saw The Last Man on Earth on late night TV many years ago. When I tracked down and bought it a few years ago, it didn't hold up as well from an adult perspective. I've never seen Omega Man, but have heard it was another sub-par version of the book. Maybe one day someone will do it right. Yea right...
On your aside, I saw The World, the flesh, and the Devil years ago and I kept thinking, "The Farmer's Daughter in an SF movie." O callow youth is my only excuse.
I saw the Stevens movie in the theater before she was the farmer's daughter.
Guess I'll skip this one and re-read the book instead.
Not entirely a bad idea.
"The Omega Man" is one of the films TCM should have run as a tribute to Charlton Heston Friday when they pre-empted their schedule including TCM Underground showing "Attack of the Crab Monsters and "The Thing"(not the John Carpenter version).
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=2848
If you want to see the movie the TV show The Farmer's Daughter was based on:
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=345406
It's one of my favorites not only are Loretta Young, Joseph Cotten, Ethel Barrymore, Charles Bickford, and a cast of great charactwer actors great but it has James Arness in his first role (as James Aurness), Keith Andes, and future Tarzan, Lex Barker as Katie's brothers.
Lex Barker was pretty good in those roles before Tarzan.
I agree about The Omega Man. Maybe TCM doesn't own that one.
Bill, I don't know if you've already seen this, but if not, it's worth a few minutes to watch it. It's neither more true to the book nor particularly better than the ending the director chose (which I also didn't care for), but it's an interesting take on the direction the movie could have taken...
http://www.firstshowing.net/2008/03/05/must-watch-i-am-legends-original-ending-this-is-amazing/
Ron C.
Thanks, Ron. This wasn't on the disc Netflix sent my way, and I do like it a lot better than the theatrical release's ending. It's still "Hollywood" than the novel's ending, but it's a lot closer, and it's a lot more satisfying (to me) than the one we got in the movie.
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