I Am… Amazed
I didn’t write much about I Am Legend when it was released in December. I was underwhelmed, but I had this very strong sense that seeing the film in IMAX was a mistake. I love IMAX, but as I learned tonight, this was a small, intimate film that happened to have some big effects, not the other way around… which is how they sold it and what IMAX suggested.
But what is extraordinary about the I Am Legend DVD is not only the beauty of Blu-ray… but the alternate ending… an ending that was so right that it is almost unfathomable why they dumped it for such a conventional choice. I can imagine the original ending confusing test audiences and leaving them longing for the more defined, heroic ending that was on the theatrical release. But… ugh.
SPOILERS IF YOU CARE
The “alternate” ending is a realization by the Will Smith character that he is trying to cure something that does not see itself as an illness. In one remarkable 3 minute segment, his character’s years of personal sacrifice are reduced, on an emotional level, to the ugliness that societies have been prone to, thinking that we are “right” and that we are going to reach out to “fix” other cultures. He is, to not put too fine a point on it, a Dr Mengele character to these creatures… who show more kindness to him when they don’t have to than he’s ever shown to them.
Part of what is actually brilliant about it is that director Francis Lawrence and the writers don’t try to overexplain it. They leave it universal and open to personal interpretation. But the core idea is unmistakable. It is all too easy to lose perspective and see others as animals who have “no higher brain function,” whether they are Iraqis or Republicans or anyone with whom we simply disagree.
END SPOILERS
I don’t know the story of how this movie got cut the way it did. And in a really unusual turn, there is no director’s commentary on either version of the film. So, no help there.
But this movie, on the big screen in the living room, in living Blu, hit home in a way that the first experience of it didn’t come within miles of. I’m at least a couple viewings away from throwing around the “m” word, but I am beginning to think that Smith, who thought this was an awards movies, might have been right… with this “alternate” ending. It’s not a movie about the Empty NY effects. Really. The difference in the two endings makesevery bit as much difference as the transformative difference between Almost Famous and Cameron Crowe’s director’s cut, Untitled. Wow.
I haven’t seen this alternate ending, but it’s pretty close to the intention of the original Matheson story, and it sounds like a good example of how a really expensive movie can be easily dumbed down.
There are a couple of problems with this supposed “alternate” version, first is that with the exception of two scenes it’s basically the same version but with a different ending, I dont see why we had to be sold 2 versions of the movie when just an “alternate ending” DVD supplement would have sufficed. Secondly, the alternate ending is attached to the regular cut of the movie so it just stands out like a sore thumb because it seems to come from a realy different cut of the movie, and it also renders the title moot, since, well, he doesn’t become a legend.
I totally agree about he alternate ending, it’s superior to the theater ending in every way. And on Blu Ray the film is amazing. Keep the Blu Ray stuff coming DP, i love it! Has anyone seen Bladerunner on Blu? Amazing right?
I thought the alternate ending was pretty dumb, myself. For one, we would have had to deal with a whole lot of that poorly rendered vampire doing his screaming thing. Plus, there’s no way that vampire wouldn’t have killed Smith after he was finished. It didn’t really make any sense, but, hey, to each his own.
We’ll see if this will let me embed. If it doesn’t here’s the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2b4VqEGEJw Youtube version of the alternate ending
DP, I couldn’t agree more, the “alternate ending” works so much better than the theatrical, which felt tacked on IMO.
“I thought the alternate ending was pretty dumb, myself. For one, we would have had to deal with a whole lot of that poorly rendered vampire doing his screaming thing. Plus, there’s no way that vampire wouldn’t have killed Smith after he was finished. It didn’t really make any sense, but, hey, to each his own.”
What you seem to be missing from the ending is… people became the night-walkers. That’s who people became. The Alpha-Male (as he’s listed in the credits. Which means that the Night-walkers were mo-capped in post) went after Nevelle because Nevelle CAPTURED HIS WOMAN! This shows that the night-walkers had evolved to such a point, that they understood LOVE. If they understood love. They could evolve even further.
So Nevelle comes to understand that he’s searching for a cure to something, that does not need a cure. Which is a rather profound statement for the film to make. Too bad Warners wanted an action-film instead of a nice thought-provokin sci-fi film. I will gladly buy this film on DVD. When Warners puts out a version that’s worth a damn!
I think the non-kill is part of the point, Bart… the victim can be more humane than the victimizer.
But – oh I’m gonna get hell for this – I seem to recall you being a Clinton person… so your position makes perfect sense.
I know… I know…
Irony!
Irony… nothing… HEAT THROWIN DOWN WITH AUTHORITY!
I look forward to Mr. Poland soon extolling the virtues of Scary Movie 4 on blu ray.
I kid, I kid. But seriously, there is a known phenomenom of top notch high-def presentations masking the crappiness of very average movies. And I am Legend is a decidedly average movie whose only distinction in my mind is that it is slightly better than most other Will Smith movies.
I felt that way, as I wrote, but the context in which I saw the film theatrically (IMAX) seems to have skewed my perception… not the Blu experience.
There is no question in my mind that how a studio sells a movie, when it doesn’t really reflect what is on screen, is a huge influencer in the wrong direction if the movie is any good at all. In so many ways, I Am Legend is a small, late 60s, low budget story… with CG that ramped up expectations beyond the movie’s intent to support that. When the director of Pursuit of Happyness leapt out of it, I thought he was right. Now, I think it would have been right up is alley.
And I have Scary Movie 4 in Blu… and have no intention of watching it. But I am looking forward to popping in Rescue Dawn.
The alternate ending was just an alternate way of raping Richard Matheson’s original, beautiful denouement.
I disagree completely, David. Awful screenplay. Absolutely terrible. And I wouldn’t come close to comparing its alteration to the changes in “Untitled.” It might be a better fit for the film than the other ending, but it is in no way transformative.
But that’s the opinion of someone who has actually read the book. So many, it pains me to say, have not.
Surely, Kris, you knew that a movie starring Will Smith and directed by the Constantine guy with a budget of $150 million or whatever it was wouldn’t have the ending of the Matheson book.
At least he dies in it, and anyone expecting a perfect adaptation with the people involved in this production hasn’t been to the movies in the last 20 years.
“I kid, I kid. But seriously, there is a known phenomenom of top notch high-def presentations masking the crappiness of very average movies. And I am Legend is a decidedly average movie whose only distinction in my mind is that it is slightly better than most other Will Smith movies.”
So the biggest movie star in the world has a propensity for making crap? Uh no. The ending does radically CHANGE the movie, but you seem to like ignoring change. So it’s understandable you feel the way you do. I kid… sort of… HIYO!
“So the biggest movie star in the world has a propensity for making crap? Uh no.”
So I guess that means you equate commercial success with quality, huh. That’s one approach, I guess…