With two small kids and lots of fatigue, I don’t see movies very often. A friend of mine had a copy of the Will Smith version of I Am Legend, and I finally finished watching it last night (I fell asleep first go ‘round).

I’m very disappointed in the ending. It was so very Hollywood. I’ve read Matheson’s classic several times in my life, and the way the film distorted it into a hero’s bittersweet ending was very disappointing.

Is America really that hopeless that the viewing public can’t stomach a dark ending? The effects were great, but it barely resembled its inspiration.

Was it really a Scientology vehicle and I somehow missed that implication?

I haven’t seen it and probably won’t until it is on cable, but what about

Omega Man with Charlton Heston

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1278162237096023330

and

Last Man on Earth with Vincent Price?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8392008709075780152

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-51739690186335997

psik

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1278162237096023330

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

I always thought Omega Man was a bit cheesy, but at least it was faithful to the story line.

I haven’t seen Last Man on Earth yet. Probably won’t be able to get around to it for a while—my toddler doesn’t like it when I stare at the computer for hours on end. Maybe I’ll get it from netflix and watch it while I can be horizontal on the couch. I’m getting that really nasty cold and feel pretty awful.

I guess it’s a chicken/egg thing. I’ve seen a documentary on Death Becomes Her, where they said that they had a dark ending to the film, and the test market hated it so they re=wrote the whole thing. But how much of that is Hollywood leading the public to want only “happy endings” and how much of it is the public wanting them?

This is the reason I prefer foreign film these days, though. At least the Japanese, Chinese, French, and Indians don’t feel the need to make every movie’s ending make sense and have a ray of sunshine.

Hollywood often screws up great novels by giving the movies what it think of as a “romantic” ending.  Look what they did to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy!

Idealism is over rated.