I Am Legend: One More Reason to Hate Christianity
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I Am Legend was awesome. The special effects work needed some touching-up, but everything else mixed together brilliantly into what is likely one of the best horror films I've seen in recent years...
...right up until the last 10 minutes.
What kind of gay-ass, bullshit co-out ending was that? They wanted to turn it into another 'Goddidit' miracle motif!? ARGH! This is one the most shameful examples of an author forcing an otherwise excellent story to do something, ever!
No, theists, I'm actually not just ragging on you here. There's plenty of Christian-themed miracle plots in film that I find enjoyable - but make no mistake: the ending to I Am Legend was just plain incorrect.
Will Smith should've been eaten right there in front of his newly-cured 'patient'.
The whole movie was about the demise of mankind in the face of his greatest achievements. The viral outbreak occurred as a result of our tenacious appetite for quelling disease. Will's character had become obsessed, like the superorganism before him, of 'fixing things'. Just as the world before was consumed by it's own appetite for 'the cure', Will was set to share the same fate (the fact that he initially gave-up and simply tried to stop the zombie/vampire horde with reason would only have made the ending that much more visceral).
But, nope. Turns out the crazy spanish lady was right, and God provided his 'sign'. Queue miracle:
'Look at the butterfly!'
Gag me with a fucking spoon.
"Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full."
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940
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I agree that it was stupid, but no matter how stupid it was, it would be better than an ending where the bad guy wins. I personally need, nay demand endings that are "happy". I need the payoff for sitting there for 1/2/3 hours and getting emotionally involved in the storyline.
Wish in one hand, shit in the other, see which one fills up first.
The endings that really make me want to punch the writer/director in the face while wearing a spiked gauntlet are those "up in the air" endings where you don't know what happened.
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
Have you seen the real ending? They were going to use this one, but changed it because it shows that the monsters were actually just a community of pseudo-people.
http://www.firstshowing.net/2008/03/05/must-watch-i-am-legends-original-ending-this-is-amazing/
I refuse to see the whole movie, but I have read the book and seen both of the endings. Why they didn't go with the other ending is beyond me. Why they would allow Will Smith anywhere near "I am Legend" is also beyond me.
"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."
British General Charles Napier while in India
WHOA
That just made the movie MUCH MUCH better. I was underwhelmed by the DVD ending, especially when Smith invoked the supernatural, but this ending just made up for that. I wish I had a copy of the movie with that ending.
Your god's silence speaks loud and clear
I had thought the book was substantially different, but don't want to actually read it. That alternate ending is much more appealing.
BigUniverse wrote,
"Well the things that happen less often are more likely to be the result of the supper natural. A thing like loosing my keys in the morning is not likely supper natural, but finding a thousand dollars or meeting a celebrity might be."
As far as I've understood it, as for the book, the title is the pay-off. The whole point is that Will Smith's character is the vampire from the point of view of the vampires. He's the legendary creature, that only comes out at day (as opposed to at night) and preys on "people" (from the point of view of the vampires, they are "people" and he is the mythical creature).
That was supposed to be the pay-off according to the book, and the title is the pay-off to that. It's supposed to be a "oh, now I get it: he's their legendary monster, like Dracula"-moment.
It seems rather stupid to change the ending of a story where the very last moments of the story is the whole point.
It'd be like a remake of The Sixth Sense with the ending changed to something without the "ahaaa" moment... It defeats the whole purpose of the story.
Just for the record, I have neither read the book, nor seen the movie. I've just read about both, to find out what they were all about.
Well I was born an original sinner
I was spawned from original sin
And if I had a dollar bill for all the things I've done
There'd be a mountain of money piled up to my chin
This ending didn't make much sense to me. Note: it was a while ago I saw the movie so I had to look up to see what had happened. The ending they used was much better I thought - the alternate was one of those "up in the air" endings I hate. I didn't see it as at all Christian/miracle (especially since the "hero" character was an atheist. )
I want movies to have happy endings (unless of course it's a documentary or historical movie about something not happy. ) Real life is depressing enough.
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
BigUniverse wrote,
"Well the things that happen less often are more likely to be the result of the supper natural. A thing like loosing my keys in the morning is not likely supper natural, but finding a thousand dollars or meeting a celebrity might be."
I guess I'm easier on movies than most. My only qualification for a movie is, unless it's a documentary, "Entertain me".
Will Smith's version of I Am Legend, entertained me. So did Omega Man and so did The Last Man on Earth.
As far as the spanish lady and her 'hope'...Her 'hope' was faith and Will Smith's 'hope' was science. Will Smith felt partially responsible for what had happened and wanted to 'fix' things. Where as, the spanish lady was a innocent bystander trying to make sense of it all. At least, that's how I saw it.
It's a conversion story. He doesn't believe there's a "god" or a "plan" because of how things are, even though she (Anna) keeps insisting that there's a "higher reason" why they met, that there's some greater plan in this. In his last scene, though, he changes and says "this is why you were sent here" (quoting from my memory here, so it may not be the exact words, but the message is the clear), meaning that he now believes (again?). Of course, she turns out to be fucking right too.
It's the "even though there's suffering and evil in the world, "god" still has a plan which makes everything right and good again, so don't lose faith" shit.
"Nobody will ever win the battle of the sexes. There's too much fraternizing with the enemy."
While I agree that I am Legend had a pro-faith stance, I can't say that it ruined the film, because the film wasn't that great in the first place. I'll admit that there's a feeling of eerie tension that suffuses the whole piece (something to be applauded), but the producers avoided the opportunity to do something unique (as in the case of Matheson's novel) and instead decided to bring everything to a big, bloody, scary conclusion. It gives us answers to accept rather than questions to ponder; 2001 and Blade Runner are such good films because they do the opposite. Additionally, the helicopter crash was gilding the lily and the whole "woman shepharding a feral kid" thing was a complete lift from The Stand. They were both annoying. I wish the ghouls got them. Oh, and as for pale ghouls who can't stand the light and scale difficult surfaces--The Descent makes I am Legend look suitable for a four year old.
"The whole conception of God is a conception derived from ancient Oriental despotisms. It is a conception quite unworthy of free men."
--Bertrand Russell
Wow. Having not read the book, I didn't realize this hook at all - and, yeah, that alternate ending really does turn the whole thing on it's head. Brilliant work.
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940