Guess how I feel about that. No, really. Guess.
I Am Legend 2 will use the original movie’s alternate ending to bring Will Smith back after he died at the end of the original I Am Legend. The hit film, which was released in theaters in 2007, starred Will Smith as one of the last human survivors of a plague that turned people into monstrous nocturnal creatures called Darkseekers. While the end of the film originally featured Smith’s character sacrificing himself in order to save two more survivors and protect a potential cure for the virus, the alternate ending on the DVD release featured him realizing his experiments on the Darkseekers were causing them pain and forming a bond with the alpha, returning his mate and escaping to freedom.
…I understand the concept of test audiences, and they’re there for a reason. Alas, in the original I AM LEGEND this particular one absolutely fornicated the canine. The new ending was a jarring substitution that clashed horribly with the existing themes of the movie, and I very well might have snarled something to that effect at the screen when I saw it in theaters. The sequel’s tossing that [expletive deleted] right out the window, and it’s gonna have Michael B. Jordan in it along with Will Smith, so things are already looking up for the project.
#commissionearned
It’s been a decade or so since I read the book but the whole point is the protagonist eventually realizes that to the monsters, he’s the monster. He hunts and kills them in their sleep. They wake to find their partners and children missing. He is a legend to them. The movie just threw that away.
That said, the entire movie is worth it for Emma Thompson’s 60-second cameo in the beginning.
For a researcher who just cured cancer yet is unknowingly responsible for the downfall of humanity, there is no smugness, no arrogance, and no ego. Those are the obvious traits for the hubris angle you would expect, but she plays the scientist as just humbly pleased. The interviewer has to drag the information out of her, and Thompson’s character is not holding back for a dramatic reveal. She comes off as completely modest over her historic accomplishment of curing cancer, just before the scene cuts to showing NYC 3 years later in a state of abandoned post-apocalyptic decay she obviously caused. It’s tragic, beautiful, and hilarious.
I enjoyed the original novel but thought the movie missed the point when they had any other survivors. Likewise, going so far as to find a “cure” completely reversed the direction of the plot.
I am not sure what I expect from the movie, but even though this sounds like a better take the original, I am not that likely to see it.
But I am excited to live in a world where a sequel to the alternate ending only seen on the DVD can get made and released!
Sure it might be cool, but the iron law applies – no money for Will Smith, his abhorrent, racist wife, or their sub moronic progeny.