The Omega Man remake: I Am Legend

[Frank Granovski]

Here's Ebert's review:

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/...712130305/1023

More reviews from Ebert:

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/

[Mark Bournes]

Let me start by saying I liked it. It's not great by any means, it's entertaining at the very least. You kind of know what you're getting into before you go see it. So don't expect to much.

I wonder, how is it that the CG looks great for the deserted city scenes, and the "vampires" look like something out of an 80's video game. They almost look unrendered. Very flat and not very scary.

It looks as though they spent all of the CG money on the scenes and not enough on the characters. Disapointing!

The plot has holes and the ending is predictable and weak.

It's a fun movie for a matinee price. Just don't expect a whole lot.

[Nick Vaughan]

Originally Posted by Chris Hurd

Debating whether or not to watch the Chuck Heston version at home prior to seeing the Will Smith version in the theater...

I hate to quibble, but I'm morally opposed to referring to I AM LEGEND as an OMEGA MAN (1971) remake. It is clearly a remake of the Vincent Price classic THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (1964). LAST predated OMEGA by seven years. While the two are based on the same novel ('I am Legend' by Richard Matheson [1954]), I feel it is important to note that Charlton Heston sucks.

And to the fellow who said that the vampires were probably inspired by Romero's NOTLD (1968) zombies (and that they were boring), you're wrong. NOTLD was released in 1968...right around the fall of the production code. LAST was released in 1964 - when it was still sort of important to get the Code's seal of approval...I mean, let's face it: things that came out before 1968 just weren't that scary (gory, violent) anyway...maybe because of the Code? It's no surprise that we can't find flesh eating zombies and splatter flicks before NOTLD. Cut THE LAST MAN ON EARTH some slack.

I really have no desire to see the latest remake. I never do. Especially when the film in question has anything remotely to do with the horror genre. Take HALLOWEEN (2007), for instance - I don't need Rob Zombie to develop Michael Meyers' character. We all know from the first four minutes of the original that Meyers is a sexually violent whacko because we get to see him murder (penetrate) his post-coital, nude sister with an overtly phallic weapon. Rob Zombie takes an entire half hour to do the same thing John Carpenter did in less than a sixth of the time. With that in mind, who can possibly care what Will Smith can bring to the role of Robert Neville? Or, for that matter, who can possibly care what the great film auteur (HAH!) Francis Lawrence's vision of I AM LEGEND will lead to? This guy is obviously a hack. Have you seen CONSTANTINE? I have. Thank God it was on cable.

I feel like this is just one in a cycle of a few films that are stepping stones for a Will Smith best actor Oscar bid.

We need to find someone who can dig Hollywood out of this nostalgic remake rut. It's a real snoozer.

Jesus, this turned into a rant. Apologies!

[Chris Barcellos]

Originally Posted by Nick Vaughan

I feel it is important to note that Charlton Heston sucks.

Jesus, this turned into a rant. Apologies!

Don't ask Jesus to forgive you, you need to talk to Moses, or even Beh Hur...

You know, it is a bit amazing how when we are young, it is so easy bash and smash those who have gone before us.... Its easy, because we know at the ripe old age of 23 that we are going to do so much more than those that went before us...

As we grow older, we begin to appreciate people for what they meant to a generation.

In the case of Charlton Heston, he was appreciated by many for the big movies that in those days were so important to us... Yes, he did a few stinkers, and yes, you may not have liked his politics, but you have no right to judge anyone--- at least not until you have been around a little longer, and then, you will probably know better...

[Kelly Goden]

Originally Posted by Nick Vaughan

And to the fellow who said that the vampires were probably inspired by Romero's NOTLD (1968) zombies

**I said that Romero's zombies was probably inspired by Last Man on Earth, not the other way around. Matheson tells a funny story about how he ran into him once and the first thing Romero did was throw his hands in the air and declared: but it didnt make any money!

I am not sure he saw Last Man on Earth or just read the book, but there were similarities in the behavior of the vampires/zombies(granted, you cant get much cheaper than street clothes and pale face makeup so it can easily be a coincidence).

And sadly, the vampires in LMOE are boring when compared to the book. I dont buy the code argument because Hammer was making some fairly grisly films and they were getting US releases. LMOE was just a victim of bad Italian filmmaking decisions or budget cuts.


It, LMOE, is fairly close to the book and visually there are things that are exactly as I pictured them in the book, except they screwed up the ending which is why Matheson took his name off the credits and used an alias Logan Swanson.

I prefer it to the Omega Man.

In the Vampire Cinema, a 70s book, it mentions Heston regretted that they didnt follow the book more closely.


I think Price did a good job --I just find it hard to divorce him from all the other work he has done to play an everyman as the book describes. He would have done a great job narrating the book's closing monologue though.

Apparently there were plans to do a remake in the 80s with Harrison Ford. he would have been a great choice--has that every man quality, and his real life carpenter skills would have been handy in making stakes!

[Dennis Stevens]

Just felt like chiming in.

I saw I Am Legend on a big Imax screen. The deserted Manhattan scenes looked terrific, the cg mutants looked terrible.

I thought the virus changed people into creatures from 'Resident Evil' or some video game - the first sign of infection is pronounced pixelation, followed by loss of 3 dimensionality.

Spoiler Alert-
Anyway, I was sorta surprised/disappointed they didn't follow the ending of the book. I kept thinking 'The director doesn't expect me to believe this woman and this boy trekked from Maryland to New York city, dodging super powered monsters all the way, crossed the water to Manhattan, fought an army of monsters (with a flare?) to rescue Will Smith.'

In the book there's a rising society of mixed vampire/human hybrids. Neville is their boogeyman, as they are his. That's where the title really comes from.

Oh, I know, just a movie. Besides the cg, I thought Will Smith's performance was really quite good, and he really carried the movie. The dog gave a great animal performance, and Emma Thompson had a terrific cameo as well.

[Andy Graham]

Just saw the film, its not as good as the original version (money and cgi aside). My biggest problem with this film is that they put a lot of leg work into setting up the head zombie character as being intelligent, moving the manakin and setting a trap for will smith so i was gearing up for an interesting intellectual battle between the two but instead of delivering on it they just show you the head zombie hitting his head against the glass at the end like a mindless fool. Oh and why did will not get into the safe room with the other two and stick his hand out to throw the grenade and quickly shut the door?.

All that money and no imagination.

Andy.

[Mark Bournes]

[QUOTE=Andy Graham;804913]Just saw the film, its not as good as the original version (money and cgi aside). My biggest problem with this film is that they put a lot of leg work into setting up the head zombie character as being intelligent, moving the manakin and setting a trap for will smith so i was gearing up for an interesting intellectual battle between the two but instead of delivering on it they just show you the head zombie hitting his head against the glass at the end like a mindless fool. Oh and why did will not get into the safe room with the other two and stick his hand out to throw the grenade and quickly shut the door?.

All that money and no imagination.

Funny thing is I bet they did have a different ending and then "the suits" came in and gave them their version of how it should end and the writer just sat there pulling his hair out. See "The TV set" it will explain it all. Not a bad movie by the way. Sigourney Weaver is pretty good in it.

[Bob Thieda]

Originally Posted by Kelly Goden

I understand that they are releasing a new book titled I Am Legend by Richard Matheson but its been adapted by the current film screenwriters.

Buyer beware.

Oh...say it isn't so....I ordered a copy from Amazon....how do I know what I'm getting?

As for the movie...OK....definately an Omega man remake....without the communication between the day dweller and the night dwellers, which I missed.
My grown kids had never seen the Omega Man and we rented it the next day....it's still good and they liked it. Haven't seen the V. Price version yet, although I did pick up a copy....

Bob T.