No, not me. I’m more of an urban myth.
We just came back from the movie “I Am Legend”. Right up until the end, this was a very solid and fundamentally intense movie. There was almost no soundtrack, very little dialogue, and tight acting by Will Smith who has grown into a formidable actor.
SOME MILD SPOILERS AHEAD.
But then it slammed headlong into goofy territory. I won’t spoil it for you, but the gritty reality of the movie was overturned in the last five minutes as abruptly and stupidly as it possibly could have. There was no reason at all to do what it did, and it makes me wonder if someone tacked the ending on at the last minute.
Let me say that I am not all ticked off because it invoked God– in fact, I think that would have made a very interesting subplot had it been handled correctly. No, it’s just the whole mystical thing was very jarring when it had no real buildup and very little to do with the actual story. There was no reason for it at all, and had they stuck with the flow from the rest of the movie, the ending could have been far, far better.
Don’t avoid the movie because of that; it’s a fine flick and I was literally cringing with tension for a lot of it. The use of silence was incredibly gripping, and in fact when we finally get to the point where we see the Infected, it’s a bit of a let down. No way to avoid that I suppose, but it does make the first half of the movie superior to the second, even without the silliness at the very end.
I may go and find the novel this is based on, to see how this deviated from it. It sounds pretty cool.
