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Post by pauliepoos on Dec 30, 2007 15:54:12 GMT
Well, well, well. What a rather enjoyable film, if slightly irritating at times. I'll put it all in a spoiler, because if you haven't seen it, there are a few things that you'll really want to be surprised by. Firsty, Emma Fucking Thompson! Two time Academy Award winner Emma Fucking Thompson! I had absolutely no idea she was going to pop up, however briefly, and I think I squealed a little bit when she first appeared.
The dog! The dog was fantastic, and the things Will was prepared to do for the dog was really well done, including the scene in the laboratory, which was so sad. I was more upset about Samalsation being attacked by Zombie Dogs than I was by Will being attacked by Zombie Men.
The zombies! When you first see the zombies, why does it look like they're jerking off in a circle? Are they playing sticky biccy? They were quite scary though, and Head Zombie reminded me a bit of Jason Donovan.
Will Smith's body! I saw Natalie Cassidy's work out dvd for £13.99 in HMV earlier. Not interested. If Will Smith did a work out dvd for £13.99, I'd buy it.
The religion. Really, really, really didn't like the God Will Save You message. And the butterfly? Pah.
The scene where the zombies attack the house: I had to stop myself from shouting TURN THE FUCKING LIGHTS ON. Honestly.
The ending. It reminded me of Last Train, the series where Milly from This Life died halfway through.
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Post by Rad on Dec 30, 2007 21:01:47 GMT
It was better than I expected (which was that it would be awful) and Will Smith was really rather good, though it was a bit of a rip of 28 Days Later in places. Fortunately without the going really mental and crap halfway through bit. I am totally with yuo on the Emma Thompson thing. And then was like 'they can't just be using her for those two minutes' only to find that they were. Although I don't like the idea of Emma being responsible for the almost end of the world.
The message was a bit weird - is it that science is bad, m'kay? Or that we better not try and cure cancer in case it makes us all zombies? Didn't quite get it.
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Post by Elly on Dec 31, 2007 11:01:35 GMT
I did think it was a fairly smart, genuinely scary film until the end. The dog was literally the cutest thing I have ever seen, and my mum said to me afterwards 'Oh, maybe me and your dad should get a dog'. I've been trying to persuade her for ages! Thank you, lovely Will Smith. However, the ending. I hated how it panned out. I don't understand how that woman was able to fight off the zombies and rescue him when he was trapped in the car. I kept thinking there would be a twist at the end where it turned out he was imagining her and the kid, because it seemed far too predictable that the first people he met would be an attractive woman and a cute kid. But, no. That's just Hollywood.
And I hated the message it sent out at the end. I understand that apocalyptic dramas will nearly always go in a theological direction, and I liked the line that Will Smith said, something along the lines of "God didn't do this, we did." I thought it would be left there, but then we got that sledgehammer of a resolution at the end. It would have benefited from a much darker ending.
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Post by ramona on Dec 31, 2007 19:04:50 GMT
it was a bit of a rip of 28 Days Later in places. Think it may be the other way round - I am Legend was written as a novel in the 50s and has been filmed twice before. Plus 28 Days Later "borrowed" rather heavily from Day of the Triffids, which had similar elements.
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Post by Rad on Jan 1, 2008 12:54:41 GMT
it was a bit of a rip of 28 Days Later in places. Think it may be the other way round - I am Legend was written as a novel in the 50s and has been filmed twice before. Plus 28 Days Later "borrowed" rather heavily from Day of the Triffids, which had similar elements. Ah, thanks for educating me,
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Post by al on Jan 1, 2008 20:27:33 GMT
Saw this last week and was absolutely blown away - although it did lose a bit of narrative clout when the fucking reel decided to catch fire, thus creating mild panic and a 20-minute wait to see the last five minutes. That said - at the risk of sounding stupidly pedantic, where exactly did the lions and antelope come from?
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Post by jode* on Jan 3, 2008 13:59:29 GMT
Saw this last night. It was okay. Very scary at times, and they made every scene/shot change started with a loud noise (even if it was just him opening the shutters) just to provoke me to jump out my seat. Could someone clarify to me where Will Smith actually was with regards to the city, and the geography of New York as a whole? Would bombing the bridges quarantine the whole of New York or just Manhattan? How did the woman get to him without the bridges? I have never been to New York so any clafirication would be good.
I too thought she would end up being a figment of his imagination in the end. I like a (slightly) happy ending so I like the way it panned out with a new civilisation and a cure.
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Post by al on Jan 4, 2008 12:30:54 GMT
Regarding your questions, jode*... It was just Manhattan that was quarantined, at the start anyway. It was the island of Manhattan that Will Smith was confined to.
The woman and the boy turned up on a boat, as far as I'm aware. They said they were picked up by some UN relief ship or something, so I figured that's what they were travelling on.
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Post by somethingbiblical on Jan 8, 2008 0:08:23 GMT
Hmm yeah but how did she drive out of the city then?
I thought this was really good, things like this always scare me because I don't usually get scared by the things in films that are supposed to be 'scary', rather the jumpy things freak me out and this had plenty of jumps.
I think it was probably actually a bit better, and obviously glossier, than 28 Days Later, so it would have been better if it had been released first so it didn't seem like you were watching the same thing with Manhattan instead of London and vampire things instead of zombies.
My boyfriend, the geeky science researching student, said, quite loudly within the first two minutes "That's RIDICULOUS - you can use viral infections to combat cancer but you would NEVER use measles, that's FAR too dangerous", and I said "stfu, trust Emma Thompson"... whoops.
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Lisa
Su Pollard
Campaigning for the ghostly return of Toby - always my favourite serial killer
Posts: 454
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Post by Lisa on Jan 8, 2008 13:42:10 GMT
I asked the same question Al - about the lions and antelope. Further to much discussion it was decided in Epsom Pizza Hut over Christmas that they were probably just there to represent the survival of the fittest / fastest and had managed to escape from some sort of zoo. Although, why there were no other animals we couldn't decide. Not the best argument I know, but it's the all we could manage at the time!
Also, would vegetation start to grow through the roads so fast? The boyfriend says yes but I'm not so sure.
I know that the theological ending was a bit jarring with the rest of the film, but having written my final year piece at university on how America always saves the world (Armageddon, Deep Impact etc etc) I thought it made quite a nice change!
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2008 14:17:09 GMT
I've decided that the Lions were put there by the Government to kill the vampire zombies and the Antellopes to feed the Lions when vampire zombies were a bit thin on the ground.
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Post by xenomaniac on Jan 8, 2008 22:52:53 GMT
nyzoosandaquarium.com/cpz Although they don't actually keep lions I think compared to vampires its not too much of an artistic liberty.
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The Moog
Su Pollard
I'm just a dog chasing cars.
Posts: 271
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Post by The Moog on Jan 19, 2008 10:18:22 GMT
I finally saw this last night. It was alright I guess, but wasn't the opus it could have been - and some of the logic in the film made no sense. Stuff I liked: The opening scenes of deserted Manhattan were good, but not quite as effective as 28 Days/Weeks Later.
The Dog was great. And Roberts relationship with the dog was well done, and when he had to kill her, man that was grim. I knew it was coming, the constant "dogs aren't immune to contact" stuff was a blatant hint. But even so, when she started to change and he had to kill her.. blub. They could have shown more of him unraveling after she died - his last companion gone.
Stuff I didn't like: well, they didn't really follow the book did they? in fact they hardly did anything from the book which is a shame, as it's a great novel
The intelligence of the "Darkseekers" was stupid. One minute they were repeatedly hitting their heads against stuff, the next they were able to lay intricate traps. Rubbish.
They fact they were "Darkseekers" and not Vampires like in the book. Why? Vampires would have been better.
The horrible horrible CGI - absolute naffness - it looked very very fake. Both 28 Days Later and 30 days Of Night showed you can make Human beings look and move in a VERY scary way if you have the right make up and camera effects. The over use of CGI ruined this movie.
The ending - Yeah he sacrificed himself - but what a dumb way to go, and it left far too many unanswered questions.
Speaking of unanswered questions - why did no one else in the colony, who were military, and knew of Nevilles work, go to check for him? Or at least reply to his broadcasts?
Where did Anna and the kid get their car from? Why was it in great condition? Where did her constant change of clothes come from? Yes they could have come from Nevilles dead wife's wardrobe, but they never explain or show this.
Aside from that, it was ok, but not half as tense or scary as it could have been.
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