I Am Legend: Faithful Adaptation?

I am Legend is an incredibly insightful, brilliant, genre-changing masterpiece that is as scary as it is intellegent.

Of course, I am not talking about the movie. No, I am talking about a short novel released in 1954 by Richard Matheson. It tells the story of a the last man on Earth. But he is not at peace. Every living soul has been transformed into zombie-like vampires, and they gather around his house every night, screaming for his blood. He spends his nights penned up, praying for daylight to come, and his days hunting them, finding their comatose bodies and driving stakes through their hearts, and also finding the cause of the plague. Sounds a lot like the movie of the same name, eh? THAT'S BECAUSE IT'S BASED ON THE BOOK! Yup, and they aren't even vampires in the movie.

The movie I Am Legend is a new film from Francis Lawrence, director of a film I feel to be grossly underrated, Constantine. (Despite it's many blasphemies) The film chronicles Robert Neville's stuggle to survive in a New York City that is completely deserted... except for an army of crazed mutant cannibals.

A cure for cancer has been found, and it seems to be the greatest breakthrough in medicine since the cowpox annoculation. However, it has the unfortunate side effect of making the user EXTREMELY sensitive to sunlight... and quite hungry for human flesh. The medicine creates a plague that ravishes New York City, and causes the military to attempt a quarantine of the island of manhattan by destroying the bridges leading out. Military scientist Robert Neville has an immunity, though, and so he and his dog, Sam, spend their time looking for food, keeping entertained, and surviving.

The first differece a reader of the book may notice becomes obvious at the very start of the movie. The plague is the result of a virus created by man, while in the book, it is a naturally found bacteria, or a bacillus to be more percise. The next differece is that Robert Neville is black. No, I am not racist, but that doesn't exactly justify the decision to cast a black actor in the role of a white character. What DOES justify that is his incredible acting ability. I cried in this movie. I really did. Will Smith is one of the greatest actors of our time, and he did an incredible job acting here.

The movie's atmosphere is incredible, as I expected after finding out that the film would share a director with Constantine. While the CG isn't the greatest in the world, it is still fairly impressive and very stylized. There are scenes that make you feel like they actually evacuated NYC to film the movie, which brings me to my next comparison of the book: setting. The book takes place in Los Angeles. Why the change? The reason is that the director felt that NYC would A)Allow them to attatch more emotion to a deserted city and B) allow them to isolate the main character more. (Island - bridges = no way out on foot) I don't mind this change, and I agree with it from a directorial standpoint.

Another diference is the dog. in the book, the time from when Robert first finds the dog and when the dog dies (Note that it is a small black dog rather than a german shepard) is only a few pages. It has a very tiny role in the book. In the movie, however, Neville's dog, Sam, is present from the start, and has a very large role. I agreed with this change as well, as they need to show Nevilles thoughts somehow, and narration doesn't fly much with today's audiences. There is only one bit of "narration", and it is actually a recording that is sent out via radio in a continuous loop. Also, it adds a great deal of emotional impact to the film.


Overall, this film exceeded my expectations. I hate it and love it at the same time. It would have been better if they had tried to do an adaptation of the book more than a remake of Omega Man, and I am very unhappy that they changed the plague's origin (Taking away the vampires and the nocturnal humans, such as Ruth, makes the title's meaning less of a suprise)

I say this to you: READ THE FUCKING BOOC BEFORE YOU SEE THIS FILM, and please, for your own sake, get a copy with a regular cover, not one with Will Smith on the cover.

I give the film a 8/10.

The Top Ten Greatest Movie Themes

No, this isn't a review. It's one of those "Top Ten" lists.

I guess i'll start with number ten.

10. HALLOWEEN Theme by John Carpenter

This theme, first heard at the very beginning during the opening title sequence, sets the tone and suspense of the movie in a suprisingly persistant way. It's survived the test of time, being used unaltered in Rob Zombie's remake to great effect.



9. SUPERMAN Theme by John Williams

Oddly enough, I don't like the Superman series much, nor do I like the character, but the theme set the atmosphere for the more heroic scenes of the movie, and has been imitated (Though not exactly duplicated) over the years by other composers.

8. BATMAN Theme by Danny Elfman

You may be noticing a pattern here, but it's not because of a superhero fetish or something: John Williams and Danny Elfman tend to do the scores for super hero movies often, and both are amazing composers. This one is fairly dark, which is perfect for a post-Frank Miller Batman movie, and a much needed departure from the annoying, happy-go-lucky, BIFF-BAM-POW theme on the old TV show.

7. Army of Darkness Theme by Danny Elfman

While Danny only did the main theme, entitled "March of the Dead" for the score (The rest was made by Joe Doluca, who also did the scores for the first two Evil Dead films), it still deserves a mentioning. Although you do hear some of it during the title sequence of the film, the time you really appreciate it is when the Deadites (or the Army of Darkness, if you prefer to call them that) are attacking the castle. It always makes me laugh when the flute and bass drums are played onscreen by the approaching puppet skeletons, and that sort of interweaving with the movie adds a certain appeal that really adds to the theme.
Musicallly, it is very effective, giving the mental image that the title suggests.

6. Jurassic Park Theme by John Williams

I used to find myself humming this one back when I was in 1st grade. Yes, I watched it that far back. Anyway, this one was immitated in many mediums, from immitation films to Roller Coaster Tycoon II's "Jurassic Jungle" ride music, it's influence can be seen in every movie about dinosaurs, or even movies like the American "Godzilla" .(Which I hate quite a lot, since I am a huge fan of the original Japanese Toho series)

5. Spider-Man Theme by Danny Elfman

Danny and director Sam Raimi have a long history together, dating back to 1992's Darkman, Sam's first superhero film. Danny has provided a score or at least a theme for Raimi's most well-known movies, and this is the second Danny-made theme for a Sam Raimi film on this list.
This has a style that is very recognizable as a Danny Elfman score, and it even reminds me of the Batman theme with soms of the reused pieces. It has a similar heroic style as that of Batman, but is more sweeping. Hearing it during a web-swinging sequence brings tears to my eyes.

4. Harry Potter Theme by John Williams

Yes, another John Williams score.
I remember a long time ago, must have been 2001, and I was talking to my friends after school in the gymnasium, and one of my friends had seen Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone the night before.
"DUDE! That music was so cool! It goes 'Duh.. duhduh duh.. duh duuuuuuh duh. Duh.. duhduh duh.. duh duuuuh...'"
Well, I got to see the movie, and I loved it. I was young, but I still recognized the atmosphere from the books.

3. Pirates of the Carriben and the Curse of the Black Pearl Theme by Klaus Badelt

The movie has many themes, but I will pretend that "He's a Pirate" is the main one.

This theme sports a style similar to older pirate movies, but on a much grander scale. It is very effective at providing the adventurous feeling that the movie protrays so well, and actually with very little electronic editing. I love this one so much that I have it on my MP3 player. In fact, I also have a remix done by Tiesto on my computer, which I listen to regularly.

2. Requiem for a Dream Theme by Clint Mansell

A very haunting and creepy piece, this was named for the movie for which it was made. It worked so well that almost every movie critic in existance has at least mentioned it. It is so incredibly good that it has been used in thousands of movies and trailers. In fact, my school even played it at the last Pep assembly, and a local radio station has played it numerous times recently.

1. Star Wars Theme by John Williams

Tell me that you are suprised.
The opening text crawl is by far the most recognized and well-known theme, but Luke's theme is the one that really gets me. When Luke was staring out at the two suns of Tatooine, daydreaming of a pilot's life amoung the stars, the first audience of the film must have had a few teary eyes. I know that Moby's remix has done that to me.


In the end, John Williams is statistically my favorite composer, but really, I'd say that Danny Elfman is. John does have the greatest themes to his name, for sure, but I just like Danny's overall style more, even if it is a bit unprogressive.

Rob Zombie's "Halloween" Remake

Meh. I'm not a fan of the original, so I hoped this would be better, and while it's definately better, it's nothing special. The sex scenes are generic, the gore is good, but of course, spointing out that a horror movie has good gore is like saying "Hey, that movie has COLOR!" these days.

The previews they showed made it worth going. The Mist, a new Stephen King movie, looks good, and it has the same sort of "People trapped in a confined area get frustrated with each other" drama that makes me like zombie movies so much.

One Missed Call is yet another remake of a Japanese horror movie. I'm not excited about it. At all.

One thing I liked about Halloween is that Ken Foree has a small role as a truck driver. (Ken is the black dude, Peter, in the original Dawn of the Dead. He also played the televangelist in the remake of Dawn of the Dead from 2004.)


One of my main attractions for this movie was Malcolm McDowell as Loomis. McDowell played Alex in the Stanley Kubrick classic A Clockwork Orange. He also plays a character in the TV series Heroes. Well, here's one place where the movie delivered. McDowell is a natural for the role, and I wasn't disappointed at all with him.

The movie is notable as a remake for expanding on the character, mainly on his psycopathic tendancy, especially when SPOILERS Michael kills the Janitor who was always nice to the growing Michael for 20 years, taking care of him and giving advice/SPOILERS. His motivation for stalking the female lead is more fully present, and he seems far more inhuman (And superhuman, in his strength) than in the original.

I'll only give this a 5/10. I reccomend you watch the original first, so you have greater appreciation for how faithful a reimagining it is, and so you can catch the in-jokes. But for the love of your God, please, under no circumstances should you watch any of the sequels.

Ratings System

Well, this is Ash, and this is the From The Ashes Reviews blog. I will review games, movies, and books here. Just to let you know, I have a particular review system, called The Boomstick. It is a 10 point system, each with it's own corresponding image. 10 is the highest, and 1 is the lowest.