Mr K

Saying that Will should stick to being the only "name" in the cast is great for us - his die hard fans but for him as an actor - not so much. I recently started attending film school (acting department - 3 months in and I'm already being a wise-ass about acting - is that good?) and one of the things they teach is how f**king important it is to be able play off another actor. That's real acting, not standing in the middle of a crowded place and saying "Look at me, I'm the star, I'm gonna say something now". Being able to coexist with a partner that's your equal is what real acting is all about. So like Rad said, putting him in an ensemble with other great actors is a BRILLIANT idea because it's gonna make one helluva show;)

Finally! The movie found its way to Poland and I was able to see it at an advanced screening. Let me start by saying this: the movie is AMAZING. It could make it to my #1 spot of all Will's movies. Now I'm gonna include HUGE SPOILERS so be careful for those who haven't seen it yet. Deserted NYC looks beautiful. It's scary but also in a strange way poetic. The first moment when it cuts from Thompson's interview to the empty streets is pure cinema brilliance. It gets better from there on. The movie of course has little to do with the book. And you know what? Doesn't bother me one bit. I like faithful adaptations. But faithful adaptations are very easy. Because a book gives the reader everything he needs including images. It creates pictures with its descriptiveness, it delves deep into the psyche of its characters and gives more than we need to fully "see" the story...so how hard can it be to make a faithful adaptation? You take an intelligent man to direct it and he will transport everything onto the screen just the way it is in the book including the dialogue. Not only is it in fact easy, it can lead to very bad things ("Da Vinci Code" anyone? - a VERY faithful adaptation) So what I respect more is take the book's premise, get the general idea behind the story and create your own vision of it using small elements from the book. It's what they did in "I, Robot" and what they did here. "I Am Legend" is a brilliantly updated version of the 1954 Matheson's novel. It focuses more on the motivation and both emotional and psychological development of its main character rather than on the horror part. Which is exactly what I loved about the book. It was scary as hell at times, don't get me wrong, but the movie is not about the scare tactics, it's about the man and the man's journey. This is why I wanted so badly for Neville to die at the end of the movie because his death in the book symbolized the end of his journey. He fought so hard to try and find the reason for the disease and to try and find other survivors that when he realized the world has moved on and evolved on its own, there was no longer any need for him to live. He became a legend among the new civilizations. In the movie, the end of Neville's journey is the fact that he found a cure and that there are other people who survived who needed it. His job was done. His mission was over and he too became a legend among the living because of his discovery and his sacrifice to make sure that the cure was saved by Anna. That's the reason why I liked the movie's ending a whole lot more than I was expecting to after reading the reviews. Because it doesn't matter if there are other survivor's or not. Doesn't matter if it's a happy ending or not. The movie is about a man and his commitment to fulfilling his destiny of becoming a legend which is why it's okay that they kept the title. Of course, the Anna's voiceover was unnecessary, basically her finding the colony was unnecessary. Because the movie was not about her. We could have just as easily assumed that she made it out of there and delivered the cure to the right people. I'm kind of a director myself and the way I would have ended it would be to volume down the sound, volume up the music and with the camera showing Will's face we would hear his internal monologue about why he did what he did for the past three years. Then, the explosion still during his speech and the monologue would be heard as the camera would fly through the empty streets of New York ending with HIM saying the words I Am Legend. Wouldn't that be better? Will's performance was top-notch - it's something completely different from what he has done so far. He was on the spot with every single delivery, look, gesture - f**king master!! I cried like a little girl when Sam died and when he started talking to the lady in the DVD place. Powerful stuff. The CGI - again not as bed as I thought it would be but still made less of an impact than if we had real people with heavy make-up instead. The were ok when they showed them separately and standing or lying still but when hordes of them started running and jumping, they looked too cartoonish. Music - however little we heard, it was beautiful. It really was. To sum up - a solid, fair 9 out of 10 (0.5 points taken for the ending and another 0.5 for the CGI) Man, I wrote a lot...anyone even read what I wrote? Cheers

Haha, this is funny: It's the second time that I've seen it happen on RottenTomatoes and the first time it happened, was also with a Will Smith movie (Pursuit) On the day of the opening the reviews pointed to a ROTTEN score and no mention was made of Will's performance. But after a couple of days the score rose to FRESH and the consensus was changed to make notice of his acting. The same thing happened now with Legend. The score is 62% and the consensus is: "I Am Legend overcomes questionable special effects and succeeds largely on the strength of Will Smith's mesmerizing performance." I think it's pretty funny:)

I liked it. And to be completely honest, I don't see it as a comedy. Not as a corny comedy anyway. To me, it definitely looks like the type of dark comedy that I was hoping for. And it's so f***ing strange to see Will do this kind of stuff. It's really not something he got us used to. I do agree about the music, it ruined the whole thing a bit. And the scene with the whale surprised me. When I saw the on set photos of Will standing next to the giant whale I thought "My god, this looks cheesy as hell" and got me worried but in here it was pretty funny. The whole thing was even a little sad if u think about it. At times it seemed like he really did want to help but he's just too useless to pull it off:) can't wait for the movie. It's the first time since ALI that I haven't even seen one Will Smith movie and already got to see a trailer for his next one:) cheers

Whoopsie... The RottenTomatoes review count is up to 52 now and a 52% score together with the following consensus: While I Am Legend starts out with a promising premise, it falls victim to unconvincing special effects and a horror cliché-filled final act. That sucks. It's pretty much what people have been saying so far but it keeps letting me down everytime I read it. How on earth could they screw up the CGI so badly? With everything that we've seen over the last couple of years in movies like "Transformers", "Spider-Man" trilogy, "I, Robot"...etc one would think that CGI would be the one thing we wouldn't have to worry about with this movie and yet here we go. I'm not gonna comment on the ending until I see it but it sucks that people are not responding well to it. The ending is always very important because this is the thing that you leave the cinema with. Even I get it, how come people like Akiva Goldmsan, Francis Lawrence and even Will who are supposed to be "proffesionals" don't and can't be bothered to work a little harder to get it right. Always annoys me, always have and always will. Cheers

You know what? I stand corrected... At first I was really worried, but when the discrepancy IS in fact this huge like MAxFly said - something's gotta be off. And now especially with the guy from AintItCool...that is a massively positive review. I managed to become super excited about the film again :) Cheers

Hey! Guys, I love Will just as much as you guys and it actually got to a point where I can't objectively rate his films. Even when I was watching "Wild Wild West" and every bone in my body was telling me how stupid, childish and naive that movie was I still couldn't help but enjoy it. I think you guys are doing the same a bit. We are all judging his movies before we get to see them. Just like maybe that reviewer did. The difference is we're doing it for the movie's benefit but is that any different? Better? Worse? Think about it. When the man wrote "Will Smith Show" I think he meant the "Big Willie Show" which is not a good thing. A "Will Smith Show" would be good just like Tom Hanks Show in Cast Away but a Big Willie Show would not because it's way too complex a character to portray him the Big Willie way. I'm not defending the review, because I hope the guy actually IS biased like crazy and wouldn't like the movie no matter how well it was written. All I'm saying is that it's not a good sign. And let's face it - the man does have a point about the CGI. The bits we all saw in the trailer were a bit off. This type of CGI worked for "Constantine" because we were dealing with demons there and they can look a bit cartoonish but "I Am Legend" doesn't have some anonymous creatures but infected humans which is somethink completely different. Maybe I'm just bitching or maybe "Transformers" really raised the bar for every CGI-based movie in the future and things like "Van Helsing" and "Constantine" should be put to rest. Cheers

Look at this...this one of the few sources on the internet that I actually respect when it comes to reviews. http://www.comingsoon.net/news/reviewsnews.php?id=39899 I don't think this is a good sign...as a matter of fact I believe that a massive "OH Fu*k" is in place given how much we all wanted this film to work. Me especially since I'm not too convinced about the premise and what we've seen so far from "Hanocck" and the premise of "Seven Pounds"... Will, for God's sake - focus!! And get rid of Akiva Goldsman already. He's clearly not the right way for you if you want to be treated and respected as a serious actor. Cheers

Look at this...this one of the few sources on the internet that I actually respect when it comes to reviews. http://www.comingsoon.net/news/reviewsnews.php?id=39899 I don't think this is a good sign...as a matter of fact I believe that a massive "OH Fu*k" is in place given how much we all wanted this film to work. Me especially since I'm not too convinced about the premise and what we've seen so far from "Hanocck" and the premise of "Seven Pounds"... Will, for God's sake - focus!! And get rid of Akiva Goldsman already. He's clearly not the right way for you if you want to be treated and respected as a serious actor. Cheers

Julie, you're a star!!! Thx a lot. God, I really want this movie to work. Maybe it will. But "squeezing a small art film into a blockbuster" is exactly what Will Smith said about "I, Robot" and as good a movie as that one was, I wouldn'tcall it an art fiom:/ We'll see in December (or January in my case;) ) Cheers

Thanks Rad Don't really know what to make of this photo...but I prey to God that this movie doesn't turn out to be a second "Wild Wild West" for Will :/

Hey! Look what I found on comingsoon.net: http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=22985 I don't know what to think about that....My initial gut feeling is that it's bad news for the Legend movie because SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT Crap Cheers

Don't worry. Same here with us Polish folk;) 18th January to be exact:/ Hey, Ali was never released in Poland in cinemas, we only got the DVD release about 2 and a half years after the US release...

I kinda like it. He and the costume however look too clean for the character that he is supposed to be, but we don't know what part of the story the photos are from so I guess it's allright. I think he looks kinda cool. Then again, I have this thing for leather and I think that it makes every guy look cool and every girl super sexy ;) Thx for the pics MissAshley

I kinda like the new title. I liked them both. Once you got over the whole "porn" thing, the "Tonight, He Comes" title has a nice mysterious nature. Although having a title like "Tonight, He Comes" and a character named John HanCOCK would have been too much so they had to change it;) "John Hancock" is good because it kinda reminds me of something like "Wyatt Earp". Plus remember it's a superhero film and every superhero comic's/film's title or at least most of them is the superhero's name. The superhero in this one probably won't have an alter ego like Kent, Parker or Wayne and will only go by the name John Hancock. I would wanna know when are they gonna start shooting?? Cheers

I gotta say...I loved it:D I think the fact that they didn't show the creatures/vampires tells us something. This showed the movie as more of a psychological drama/suspense/horror kinda thing...which is good cuz that's what I think it should be. The only thing that bothers me is that they made it look like he doesn't find out about the existence of the creatures well into the movie and I hope that's not the case because that would stray abit too far from the book. Oh, and I love the shot of him sleeping in the tub with his dog. Cheers

Man, I'm gonna kill you for getting my hopes up like this ;P Lucky for you, the real trailer is coming out soon ;) Just kidding. This is a fanmade trailer. I've seen it like 2 months ago. You can clearly see footage from "Vanilla Sky", "I, Robot", Snyder's "Dawn of the Dead" and "Resident Evil". It is however very nicely put together. Cheers

Hey, I ain't no guest...sorry about that!

Good news for all those hungry for some IAmLegend stuff;) http://www.collider.com/entertainment/news...aid/4499/tcid/1 See you when it comes out;)

Hey! JamesUK, if you just follow the link I posted earlier you will see that it's the same article ;) nice anyway ;) Cheers

On IMDB message boards one guy posted this VERY interesting piece of news, thought you guys might enjoy: James Newton Howard (Blood Diamond, Signs, King Kong, The Village, The Sixth Sense) just signed on to score 'I Am Legend' Warner Bros. Pictures, who will release the film on December 17, has confirmed the signing of James Newton Howard to Film Music Weekly. The film is directed by Francis Lawrence, who helmed the apocalyptic Constantine (scored by Brian Tyler and Klaus Badelt) a couple of years ago. I Am Legend is also a fantasy story about a man who is the only human person living on the planet left – the rest of the world is inhabited by blood-thirsty vampires! Will Smith stars as the human fighting for his survival, other cast members include Sonia Braga and Salli Richardson. Akiva Goldsman has written the screenplay based on Richard Matheson’s novel. James Newton Howard, who is represented by Gorfaine-Schwartz, has recently scored The Lookout and also has the music for Michael Clayton and the adventure epic The Waterhorse coming up. I think this is quite good. I thought his scores for M'Night Shyamalan's movies were all pretty awesome, not to mention King Kong... Cheers

Some interesting article I found through JoBlo.com regarding that massive flashback evacuation scene: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070424/film_n...wyork_legend_dc Cheers

:wickedwisdom: To quote Kevin Spacey in American Beauty: This is the highlight of my day!! :D Obviously he has zero chance of winning but still a great news for him and his fans. Congrats Will.

Hey guys! It's been a while since I posted something here but that's because most fo you always beat me to it when I find something interesting;) Anyway, I found this production still on comingsoon.net: http://www.comingsoon.net/cgi-bin/imageFol...ion/I_Am_Legend I think this can count as the first official still from the movie. I also found this interesting article and it comes with yet another photo: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/movies/1...amp;oref=slogin I can't wait to see the creatures or some CGI/action scenes. Enjoy guys. Cheers

This is strange.. According to this: http://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=11189 I am Legend has been pushed back to December 14th!! Do they think it has oscar potential or something? It doesn't seem like the kind of movie that you'd like to put in competition with some of the best movies of the year.. Why do you guys think they did it? Maybe Will flying to Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes wedding caused some delays;) Cheers