I love post apocolypse movies. I should establish that before I go any further. Ever since for ever I've loved to see films and TV serials and read books about life after 'the fall'. Of late I have seen and read several works of post apocolypse fiction, including 'The world in Winter' (book) by John Christopher, 'Reign of Fire' (movie), 'Survivors' (TV) and the two films which this post is about.
Both films are adaptations of 'I am Legend' by Richard Matheson, which I have not (yet) read and have much the same story, though with various minor differences. In both films, Robert Neville is a US military scientist who is the last 'man' alive in New York after having become immune to a lethal virus that has either killed off the worlds population or turned some of them into vampires... so far so good.
Now, as post apocolyptic movies go, these are some of the biggest ever made. 'The Omega Man' in particular often makes the classics lists, and yet... Watching Charlton Heston do his usual routine in a dilapidated New York left me bored. The sets were uninspiring. The acting was poor and the execution was mediocre at best. The vampires had been transformed into some kind of albino cult and they never managed to motivate my hair raising reflex. On the contrary, I found them to be annoying. 'I am Legend's' CGI vampires on the hand were scarier, but equally annoying, since they looked much too unreal. Will Smith appeared to be battling toons from a game of Doom.
The ambience in 'The Omega Man' didn't convince me. At no point did I ever get the impression that Heston was really living alone in New York, or that the city had really been deserted. The sense of desolation that is vital for post apocolypse was missing entirely. Sagal should have devoted more expenses to a good matt artist to provide him with some luxurious scenes of the city in decay. Lawrence, for all his faults got that right at least. The first half of 'I am Legend' is rife with ambience, especially in the ambient soundscape. For this alone 'I am Legend' scores highest.
Unfortunately, 'I am Legend' fails in its second half. Things start to unravel when Will Smith begins to fight the horrible CGI vampires and the sense of desolatioon evaporates as the automated Hollywood action film machine kicks in and takes over the film. Next thing you know, there is a car chase, super human vampires doing the Alien thing (crawling up walls, screaching hoarsely and jumping out of shadows with mouth gaping wide) and a happy ending. Yuck! As Lesly recently said, happy endings are over rated. In a film like this one, thats true. The ending, with a some what Christian slant was truly dire but in this respect the film stayed true to 'The Omega Man' whose ending was equally appalling.
I am Legend.
Dir: Francis Lawrence.
The Omega Man.
Dir: Boris Sagal.
5 comments:
ohhh. I didn't quite see the Christian slant at the end. Well, I suppose it could be how one man sacrifices himself for the survival of mankind.
So I guess there was a bit of a Christian slant.
I don't mind a Christian slant, but I do object to the way it was made into a sappy-happy ending. It reminded me of the original ending which was tacked onto 'Bladerunner' so the poor audience wouldn't get too depressed.
It was okay. I was just beginning to feel the emptiness of being the only human on the planet when the woman rescued him (and I'm not sure how she managed).
I think an apocalyptic scenario would resemble the first three books in Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice, where a social breakdown follows a political breakdown and it's literally every man for himself and there wouldn't be enclaves of surviving humans in Legend, or at least they'd be very dysfunctional based on a might makes right philosophy. Americans like to think, have to think we would not succumb to the realities of poverty and devastation like third world countries. That's another reason for the happy ending.
Have you seen the other adaptation of I am Legend, 'The Last Man on Earth' with Vincent Price ?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058700/
You really must read the novel, it's the type of book that you can read in a day because it's that great. I really don't think I'll like the film of I am Legend so I think I'll just catch it on DVD sometime.
I've not seen the Vincent Price movie . I shall keep my eyes peeled for that one.
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