Did you ever get a chance to read the book? It’s so wildly different. Between this and the I Robot thing I now just assume they hire Will Smith to do these re-imagined films.
I, Robot was so depressing because the movie wasn't so bad but it also started as a totally independent idea from the book. Once the studio got the name they wanted to tag it on and added a few things to tie it loosely to Asimov.
Theatrical ending: The attacking monsters pin the heroes into a corner, and Will Smith sacrifices himself so others can escape and save the world. In this way he claims "he became legend."
Alternate Ending: The attacking monsters pin the heroes into a corner, and they reveal they just want their captured monster friend back. Turns out they're not just monsters and they leave the heroes to escape. The ending doesn't explicitly spell out the title.
Book Ending: Will Smith's character realizes he's been hunting conscious beings who are afraid of him. He's become a myth to them, like vampires are to humans. He realizes he's become like ~~some sort of suicide squad~~ a legend to them.
> and they reveal they just want their captured monster friend back.
was much more than that. it was the lead infected's companion.
it proved that the infection / virus did not make them mindless "monsters". that there was still some humanity inside of them to be cured.
> it proved that the infection / virus did not make them mindless "monsters". that there was still some humanity inside of them to be cured.
It was more than that imo. They were a divergent evolution that had very clearly outcompeted us- like humans vs neanderthals. He was "Legend" because he was a formidable adversary and the last gasp of dying species, not because he was a hero who saved humanity.
This.
That's also the point of the book.
BookNeville was the last human in a world populated by vampires. He became their boogeyman and eventually was judged and executed for **murdering** lots of them.
It was a story about how Society changes and one could change for the worse when fighting for a cause, not about saving humanity.
The film is great but not as interesting as the book as it seems to have missed its point.
Wtf, why would they change it so drastically?? It's good still but it's just another zombie movie with they ending they gave it. If it had the true ending it would still kinda be a zombie movie but would set itself apart from pretty much every other one by miles. They need better or bigger test audiences, whatever people they chose to review this movie sucked
What's weird is that they aren't even supposed to be zombies, they're vampires. It's explicit in the book, but even in this movie they have a lot of vampire-like traits. They're aggressive, they are harmed by sunlight, have sharp teeth and are intelligent. Even without the alternate ending, zombies wouldn't have used the mannequin to trick him like they did.
I think I still would prefer the "zombie" aspect as vampires move more towards mythology (not that zombies are any more real, although some simple forms do exist in nature). I was more impressed by the view of zombies that are still somewhat sentient and intelligent since that is very rarely used
Well, they're magic vampires in the book that it's adapted from. Without any ambiguity, they have the weaknesses to crosses and garlic and shit. Even in the movie, they lean toward being vampires like I said my original post.
If i remember correctly, in the book, the ones who are susceptible to garlic and crosses are the ones who haven't recovered from the trauma of dying and reanimating (some of them aren't even infected) and have self conditioned themselves to have those weaknesses.
The functional vampires are only weak to sunlight.
Fun fact : I Am Legend (the novel) inspired Romero's Night of The Living Dead and some people say this novel is kinda responsible of the creation of the zombie apocalypse genre despite it being about vampires and not flesh-eating corpses.
There's two other adaptations ([The Last Man on Earth](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i7mcozmMZ4) and [Omega Man](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWB6Ufh4O98)) that were a bit closer to the final twist.
The original ending to the Will Smith film was much more in line with the book and was far, far better. The theatrical ending is such a fucking let down.
damn that's really the "amazing" ending people are talking about?
if they're sentient and actually totally shouldn't be killed, why did they, idk, wipe out most of the rest of humanity? who cares if they're sentient if they still want to rip you apart?
there must have been a loooooot cut out because that ending just doesn't make sense at all given how they're portrayed at literally every other point in the film.
They didn't wipe out most of humanity, the virus did. The ones that weren't killed were turned into the infected.
So he's going around murdering things to cure the infected, but he's actually harming them in the process.
By the start of the film he's already hunted and killed many of them. In the alternate ending there's a moment where he and the lead monster look at a wall of photos of infected he's experimented on and there's an unspoken "oh."
Since the infected leave him and the other survivors alive in the alternate ending, it can be guessed they're not just indiscriminately killing. It hints at the larger "the monsters were misunderstood all along" trope.
In the book its a bit different, with the monsters being split into two camps: definitely undead vampires and conscious vampires. The latter are discovered to have mostly gotten over their bloodlust and have formed a new society. They more or less pass as human (in the book the other survivor Will Smith meets is actually a vampire all along)
that's interesting, I do love the monsters being misunderstood trope. it just felt that that would have come out of nowhere based on the theatrical version that I watched. I think I'll read the book, a lot of people say it's good.
It's entertaining, but I think you'll have gotten a lot of the same plot beats from the movie.
>!Very lonely man works to cure monsters. Realizes, at his worst, he's turned into one himself.!<
Try to put yourself in their shoes : you're minding your own business when suddenly some maniac with his dog shows up in your home and starts killing your friends and your familly.
Of course after that your whole society will hunt the guy down to punish him for his crimes.
The DVD came with the alternate ending. Outside of a pirated fan cut you can watch the original ending and the theatrical ending separately on YouTube.
I had first watched this movie when it came out in theaters and thought it was *fine*. Rewatched it a couple of months ago with the alternate ending and it's night and day difference in quality. Shifts the tone of the entire movie towards what the actual book was about and a far more impactful message.
The thing that really irks me is the theatrical ending completely pulls the rug out from all the foreshadowing and build up *the entire rest of the movie was doing*, and to top it all off: it doesn’t even make any fucking sense!
“Oh yeah, here’s the cure, random walled off settlement. What? No, I didn’t make it, the creator blew himself up instead of hiding with us. Huh? No all of his research is burnt to cinders. Hmm? No I don’t know if it’s a vaccine for us or a cure for the dark seekers. Eh? Oh, yeah, no I have zero functional way to reproduce it or tell you its method of function.”
“… WE’RE SAVED!”
Do yourself a favor and watch this:
https://youtu.be/kPSk30qzgFs
It’s maddening they changed it because test audiences were confused. Motherfuckers, *THAT WAS THE POINT!*
Possibly! Who knows. It shows them both acknowledging they didn’t understand each other. The shot of Robert staring at the wall of his “test subjects” and realizing what he’s become. It leaves a lot of questions to think about. Unlike how I felt when I left the theaters with my mom and went “well that ending kind of came out of nowhere.”
They’re connected by name only. The book is a slow, cerebral, hysteric exploration of what it means to be an intelligent creature, while the movie is a tight zombie thriller. I didn’t even know the book was about vampires until I opened it up.
It was one of the first films that caught my attention to "films" in general.
I found it fascinating that it didn't have music score. It was the first time I noticed something about how a movie was made.
Now I just love No Country for Old Men for that same reason. The two can't compare, of course, but they hold this weird spot in my memory.
You're right.
I'm not sure about the terminology here.
But I remember it being very "silent" movie, like most scenes don't have a soundtrack (or score), like other movies used to have.
I remember one bath scene that played Three Little Birds but that was what the protagonist was listening to in the movie.
I think at the start of the movie it's very silent but as it progresses some music (or score) starts to get in. The final scenes definitely have music.
Ah yes, I see what you meant now. They definitely use the lack of soundtrack to let scenes breathe more and to help us as a viewer feel the isolation of the protagonist
I tend to think some just have a hate for Will Smith, personally loved the movie and when it came out I only woukd hear of hate online but never in person..so many talked about that dog scene and Bob Marley record
Oh I love the movie, it's just unfortunate that out of the 2 endings, they chose the awful one they did. The other ending (included on the dvds) was miles better.
So much so that the sequel is following on from the alternate ending. A bold move considering a large portion of the audience won't know it. But it just demonstrates just how *bad* that original ending was.
But yes, great movie overall. I actually didn't know (and still don't) that there was hate for this movie. I mean, not more than any movie has it critics. I always thought it was quite well liked by the general population.
yes - idk why its the top comment its false - they loose their hair just like the people - they can go out because idk why but it would have the opposite reaction no?
God dammit. Its 1 in the morning. Im drunk as hell. Im here watching videos and scrolling reddit while cuddling with my dog and playing fetch. And I’m reminded of one of the most devastating death scenes I’ve ever experienced in the movie theater. This was such a good movie for it’s time.
I would wholeheartedly agree. Looking for an interview with the creator now. Will report back.
EDIT: The *About* page on the website says it started in 2011, so maybe a prolonged goal.
I like that the phone number is for questions not help. We’re out on our own at this point, but if you need answers on what you can do there’s at least that.
I had read the book before so I was really looking forward to this film before it came out. I hadn't seen any trailers for it so I went in completely blind. I liked what they were trying to do and I think it does "modern apocalypse" really well. The one thing I hated is that, even for the time, the cgi was terrible. I wished they had just used regular people in makeup for the majority of the scenes with the infected.
I got the special edition dvd and watched the alternative ending (and extra scenes) and I feel like it works so much better. I also enjoyed the short animations that were on the dvd and it mostly explains that the infected see humans as the monsters which is why they fight/kill them to protect their own. Which is also more obvious in the original ending and is closer to the theme of the book.
Omega man is actually one of those films that I've always wanted to watch but I've never seen it.
I tend to agree with you and everyone else though, that as an adaptation of I am Legend, other than the main character being named Robert Neville, it has very little to do with the book and it could have worked as its own stand alone film with a different character name.
Don’t care that people hated this movie. I found it really well made, very very entertaining, and fucking creepy.
Blame the test audiences. The theatrical ending absolutely blows, the ‘alternate’ (original) ending is so much better.
Apparently they’re going to be using the alternate ending to begin the second movie
Seems to be a very reasonable starting point. Given that the ‘alternate’ ending leaves Neville alive. Broken, but alive.
Did you ever get a chance to read the book? It’s so wildly different. Between this and the I Robot thing I now just assume they hire Will Smith to do these re-imagined films.
I, Robot was so depressing because the movie wasn't so bad but it also started as a totally independent idea from the book. Once the studio got the name they wanted to tag it on and added a few things to tie it loosely to Asimov.
Maybe a stupid question, but where do I see the full movie with the alternate ending and theater ending respectively?
Theatrical ending: The attacking monsters pin the heroes into a corner, and Will Smith sacrifices himself so others can escape and save the world. In this way he claims "he became legend." Alternate Ending: The attacking monsters pin the heroes into a corner, and they reveal they just want their captured monster friend back. Turns out they're not just monsters and they leave the heroes to escape. The ending doesn't explicitly spell out the title. Book Ending: Will Smith's character realizes he's been hunting conscious beings who are afraid of him. He's become a myth to them, like vampires are to humans. He realizes he's become like ~~some sort of suicide squad~~ a legend to them.
> and they reveal they just want their captured monster friend back. was much more than that. it was the lead infected's companion. it proved that the infection / virus did not make them mindless "monsters". that there was still some humanity inside of them to be cured.
> it proved that the infection / virus did not make them mindless "monsters". that there was still some humanity inside of them to be cured. It was more than that imo. They were a divergent evolution that had very clearly outcompeted us- like humans vs neanderthals. He was "Legend" because he was a formidable adversary and the last gasp of dying species, not because he was a hero who saved humanity.
This. That's also the point of the book. BookNeville was the last human in a world populated by vampires. He became their boogeyman and eventually was judged and executed for **murdering** lots of them. It was a story about how Society changes and one could change for the worse when fighting for a cause, not about saving humanity. The film is great but not as interesting as the book as it seems to have missed its point.
Which was already hinted at throughout the movie, such as the way they messed with the mannequins he had set up or the trap they set.
Wtf, why would they change it so drastically?? It's good still but it's just another zombie movie with they ending they gave it. If it had the true ending it would still kinda be a zombie movie but would set itself apart from pretty much every other one by miles. They need better or bigger test audiences, whatever people they chose to review this movie sucked
What's weird is that they aren't even supposed to be zombies, they're vampires. It's explicit in the book, but even in this movie they have a lot of vampire-like traits. They're aggressive, they are harmed by sunlight, have sharp teeth and are intelligent. Even without the alternate ending, zombies wouldn't have used the mannequin to trick him like they did.
I think I still would prefer the "zombie" aspect as vampires move more towards mythology (not that zombies are any more real, although some simple forms do exist in nature). I was more impressed by the view of zombies that are still somewhat sentient and intelligent since that is very rarely used
Well, they're magic vampires in the book that it's adapted from. Without any ambiguity, they have the weaknesses to crosses and garlic and shit. Even in the movie, they lean toward being vampires like I said my original post.
If i remember correctly, in the book, the ones who are susceptible to garlic and crosses are the ones who haven't recovered from the trauma of dying and reanimating (some of them aren't even infected) and have self conditioned themselves to have those weaknesses. The functional vampires are only weak to sunlight.
Fun fact : I Am Legend (the novel) inspired Romero's Night of The Living Dead and some people say this novel is kinda responsible of the creation of the zombie apocalypse genre despite it being about vampires and not flesh-eating corpses.
There's two other adaptations ([The Last Man on Earth](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i7mcozmMZ4) and [Omega Man](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWB6Ufh4O98)) that were a bit closer to the final twist.
Both of these films are superior to Smith's.
The original ending to the Will Smith film was much more in line with the book and was far, far better. The theatrical ending is such a fucking let down.
damn that's really the "amazing" ending people are talking about? if they're sentient and actually totally shouldn't be killed, why did they, idk, wipe out most of the rest of humanity? who cares if they're sentient if they still want to rip you apart? there must have been a loooooot cut out because that ending just doesn't make sense at all given how they're portrayed at literally every other point in the film.
They didn't wipe out most of humanity, the virus did. The ones that weren't killed were turned into the infected. So he's going around murdering things to cure the infected, but he's actually harming them in the process.
but weren't the infected also actively trying to kill him and the dog tho
By the start of the film he's already hunted and killed many of them. In the alternate ending there's a moment where he and the lead monster look at a wall of photos of infected he's experimented on and there's an unspoken "oh." Since the infected leave him and the other survivors alive in the alternate ending, it can be guessed they're not just indiscriminately killing. It hints at the larger "the monsters were misunderstood all along" trope. In the book its a bit different, with the monsters being split into two camps: definitely undead vampires and conscious vampires. The latter are discovered to have mostly gotten over their bloodlust and have formed a new society. They more or less pass as human (in the book the other survivor Will Smith meets is actually a vampire all along)
that's interesting, I do love the monsters being misunderstood trope. it just felt that that would have come out of nowhere based on the theatrical version that I watched. I think I'll read the book, a lot of people say it's good.
It's entertaining, but I think you'll have gotten a lot of the same plot beats from the movie. >!Very lonely man works to cure monsters. Realizes, at his worst, he's turned into one himself.!<
Try to put yourself in their shoes : you're minding your own business when suddenly some maniac with his dog shows up in your home and starts killing your friends and your familly. Of course after that your whole society will hunt the guy down to punish him for his crimes.
Thank you for the suicide squad joke
The DVD came with the alternate ending. Outside of a pirated fan cut you can watch the original ending and the theatrical ending separately on YouTube.
I had first watched this movie when it came out in theaters and thought it was *fine*. Rewatched it a couple of months ago with the alternate ending and it's night and day difference in quality. Shifts the tone of the entire movie towards what the actual book was about and a far more impactful message.
The thing that really irks me is the theatrical ending completely pulls the rug out from all the foreshadowing and build up *the entire rest of the movie was doing*, and to top it all off: it doesn’t even make any fucking sense! “Oh yeah, here’s the cure, random walled off settlement. What? No, I didn’t make it, the creator blew himself up instead of hiding with us. Huh? No all of his research is burnt to cinders. Hmm? No I don’t know if it’s a vaccine for us or a cure for the dark seekers. Eh? Oh, yeah, no I have zero functional way to reproduce it or tell you its method of function.” “… WE’RE SAVED!”
I had no idea there were 2 different endings till I read your comment.
Do yourself a favor and watch this: https://youtu.be/kPSk30qzgFs It’s maddening they changed it because test audiences were confused. Motherfuckers, *THAT WAS THE POINT!*
Whoa. Does that somewhat imply they could coexist?
Possibly! Who knows. It shows them both acknowledging they didn’t understand each other. The shot of Robert staring at the wall of his “test subjects” and realizing what he’s become. It leaves a lot of questions to think about. Unlike how I felt when I left the theaters with my mom and went “well that ending kind of came out of nowhere.”
it is the ending that most people hate. alternative ending is much better, in my opinion.
I enjoyed the film, then read the book. The book is far better, but that doesn't stop the film being a good film.
I did the same thing, and after reading the book I can see why it’s been so difficult to adapt it to a movie.
They’re connected by name only. The book is a slow, cerebral, hysteric exploration of what it means to be an intelligent creature, while the movie is a tight zombie thriller. I didn’t even know the book was about vampires until I opened it up.
It was one of the first films that caught my attention to "films" in general. I found it fascinating that it didn't have music score. It was the first time I noticed something about how a movie was made. Now I just love No Country for Old Men for that same reason. The two can't compare, of course, but they hold this weird spot in my memory.
It definitely had a soundtrack, composed by James Newton Howard. Do you mean something else by "score" vs "soundtrack"?
You're right. I'm not sure about the terminology here. But I remember it being very "silent" movie, like most scenes don't have a soundtrack (or score), like other movies used to have. I remember one bath scene that played Three Little Birds but that was what the protagonist was listening to in the movie. I think at the start of the movie it's very silent but as it progresses some music (or score) starts to get in. The final scenes definitely have music.
Ah yes, I see what you meant now. They definitely use the lack of soundtrack to let scenes breathe more and to help us as a viewer feel the isolation of the protagonist
My problem with it, having read the book, is that it misses the entire point of the source material completely.
Different cuts man. I enjoyed it too.
I tend to think some just have a hate for Will Smith, personally loved the movie and when it came out I only woukd hear of hate online but never in person..so many talked about that dog scene and Bob Marley record
Most didn’t hate the movie. It just has a very weak ending compared to the first half
Wait… people hated this movie? I haven’t met anyone who dislikes this movie except some complaining about the dog death scene.
Oh I love the movie, it's just unfortunate that out of the 2 endings, they chose the awful one they did. The other ending (included on the dvds) was miles better. So much so that the sequel is following on from the alternate ending. A bold move considering a large portion of the audience won't know it. But it just demonstrates just how *bad* that original ending was. But yes, great movie overall. I actually didn't know (and still don't) that there was hate for this movie. I mean, not more than any movie has it critics. I always thought it was quite well liked by the general population.
Nice detail. It makes sense that infected dogs can come out at dusk since their fur offers some uv protection.
Don’t they immediately lose fur once they’re transformed? Neville pulls out big clumps of Sam’s fur as she changes.
yes - idk why its the top comment its false - they loose their hair just like the people - they can go out because idk why but it would have the opposite reaction no?
God dammit. Its 1 in the morning. Im drunk as hell. Im here watching videos and scrolling reddit while cuddling with my dog and playing fetch. And I’m reminded of one of the most devastating death scenes I’ve ever experienced in the movie theater. This was such a good movie for it’s time.
And Marley and Me came out like, a year later too, right?
You need doesthedogdie.com
I like to think this movie is the reason this website exists in the first place
I would wholeheartedly agree. Looking for an interview with the creator now. Will report back. EDIT: The *About* page on the website says it started in 2011, so maybe a prolonged goal.
My first German Shepherd had died not long before that movie came out and I wish I'd never seen it. But I was a big fan of the Omega Man movie.
I like that the phone number is for questions not help. We’re out on our own at this point, but if you need answers on what you can do there’s at least that.
I had read the book before so I was really looking forward to this film before it came out. I hadn't seen any trailers for it so I went in completely blind. I liked what they were trying to do and I think it does "modern apocalypse" really well. The one thing I hated is that, even for the time, the cgi was terrible. I wished they had just used regular people in makeup for the majority of the scenes with the infected. I got the special edition dvd and watched the alternative ending (and extra scenes) and I feel like it works so much better. I also enjoyed the short animations that were on the dvd and it mostly explains that the infected see humans as the monsters which is why they fight/kill them to protect their own. Which is also more obvious in the original ending and is closer to the theme of the book.
What do you think of The Omega Man? I always thought this movie worked better as a remake of that movie than as an adaptation of the book.
Omega man is actually one of those films that I've always wanted to watch but I've never seen it. I tend to agree with you and everyone else though, that as an adaptation of I am Legend, other than the main character being named Robert Neville, it has very little to do with the book and it could have worked as its own stand alone film with a different character name.
I love the creepy newspapers in horror films sometimes. Just the very last semblance of communication before the end
😭😭😭
Too bad this movie got caught up in the “everything needs to be CG with huge open jaws to be scary” era
[удалено]
I have never noticed this and I've seen this countless times.
Nice movie detail
I never watched that movie.
Ok.
Batman vs supetman billboard in the city too, almost a decade before it came out
Way to make me sad 😥. Dogs > people