I AM LEGEND
June 12th, 2007 by park
Well, here’s the first preview I found for I Am Legend, starring Will Smith. They’ve change the original location to New York City, and it’s apparently things for him are a bit different than the original, but it IS the same story apparently. I have mixed feelings here. First of all, there is ZERO reason for Hollywood to change something about a story to make it more appealing to “current audiences”. There is a reason people still watch dated films like Night of the Living Dead. No matter what you do, you will date a film with the actors present, the technology available to them, and current events. So why force a story into a more updated era or change the location of a story? Why not, they reason. For most people seeing a small suburban town destroyed by a virus isn’t nearly as captivating or persuasive as watching the whole of New York City succumb to death, or worse…becoming vampires.
Well, so they think. To Hollywood’s mind (which is completely out of touch with reality at this point…just watch The Starter Wife to get a handle on THAT) bigger is always better.
What they fail to understand is that we go to the movies to escape our reality. We don’t want to watch a war become the beginning of the end. That was the beauty of the original I Am Legend story. It just happened. Now, it’s a war we’ve all lost, and instead of watching your old friends and neighbors taunt you from outside all night long, there will just be streets of the walking dead chanting up at him. They become faceless, and the horror inherent in the story is completely lost.
But I am happy. It means someone in Hollywood is still reading this stuff. So maybe one day we can have a more faithful adaptation.
Here’s the trailer. Enjoy.