'Legend' in the making
Finally, a summer blockbuster with brains. Too bad "I Am Legend" comes out today, not in June.
"Legend," the third telling of Richard Matheson's last-man-standing tome, stars Will Smith as the only survivor of a virus which wipes out humanity.
Or does it?
My review in The Washington Times declares my qualified love for the film. Box office will be beyond huge, no doubt. But I wonder what the word-of-mouth will be after this weekend. It lacks the nonstop action of most blockbusters, and the ending isn't what audiences will expect. (Photo: Will Smith points to a better future in "I Am Legend")
posted by Toto @ 9:51 AM
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Good call on the electricity thing, I totally spaced on it ... Upon further review, I didn't like the ending, too neat. I actually like the ending described in the novel better ... but a solid flick, I'd tell people to check it out.
Next up: Cloverfield, 1-18-08, I've been drooling after that one since the trailer aired at Transformers ...
Sorry for the double post, but I heard a take on I Am Legend tonight on NPR that compares the flick to the terrorism movies that've been out there this fall, basically saying Legend is an alegory, a tale about the U.S. and terrorism. Might work, or it might be forced, like how Invasion was supposed to tap into that Cold War paranoia ... I dunno, but here's what was said ... an interesting take ...
"I mean, it's still a sci-fi blockbuster, but take a look at that plot: Western medicine takes a virus (a bad thing) and manipulates it so that it can fight cancer (a worse thing). Sort of like Western military forces arming jihadists (which they regard as a bad thing) so that they'll fight communists (which they regard as a worse thing).
"And then the built-up virus — the bad thing — mutates into something much worse than the cancer, and it turns on its creators. And this starts where? That's right: In New York, which everyone in the movie keeps calling Ground Zero. And some poor schmoe who didn't start the problem has to try to fix it.
"But even if he comes up with a cure, a way to make the nasty infected guys human again, they're just going to keep coming, banging their heads against plate glass, destroying the civilized world and — here's the kicker — either killing everyone they come into contact with or converting them into monsters just like themselves. And the only solution is to shoot them dead — or withdraw behind metal walls, into a fortress-like homeland. And that's not working. "
Wow, talk about your tortured analogies ... and hey, didn't we side with the Russians in WWII to fight Hitler and co.?
Any way that NPR can attack the US it will, I reckon.
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