Anyone else think the book ending was way better then the movie ending?
Book- Neville turns out to be the bad guy.
"The infected have slowly been able to adapt to their disease to the point where they can spend short periods of time in sunlight and they are even attempting to rebuild society. They fear and hate Neville since he has unwittingly destroyed some of their people along with true vampires (dead bodies animated by the 'germ') during his daytime excursions and view him as a predator. In their quest to capture him, the infected sent one of their own to Neville.
Neville meets Ruth again in his prison; she informs him that she is a ranking member of this new society but unlike the others she doesn't fear and hate him. She tells him she had come to his prison to try and help him escape but that is now impossible. She acknowledges the need for Neville's execution, and slips him pills, claiming they will 'make it easier'. Emotionally broken, Neville finally accepts his fate and tearfully asks Ruth not to let this society get too brutal and heartless. Ruth kisses him and leaves.
Neville goes to his prison window and gets a glimpse of all the infected milling around in the yard waiting for his execution. When they spot him, he sees the fear, awe and horror in their eyes and he understands to them he is a scourge, just as they were a scourge to him at the beginning of the novel. Previously Neville saw the destruction of the infected survivors as a right and a moral imperative to be pursued for his own and mankind's survival, but now he finally acknowledges defeat. He is the only known immune human left in the world, the only survivor of the "old race".
He glimpses a future society where infection is normal and he, Neville, is a murderous biological deviant. As he turns away and swallows the pills, Neville grasps the reversal that has taken place and that just as vampires were legend in pre-infection times now he, an obsolete exemplar of old humanity, is legend in the eyes of the new race born of the infection. The sheer ridiculousness of it all causes Neville to chuckle as he dies, his last thoughts being "[I am] a new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever. I am legend."

Book

Have you seen The original "I am Legend" with Vincent Price?

I am Legend is one of my all time favorite books. The book is much better than the movie. I felt that the movie was far too cliche; it would have been much better had they stuck to the book.

i have not, only the 2007 version

I wish the dog hadn't died

That is my favorite book ever. Exponentially better than the movie.

The Will Smith movie did sort of play on the core theme in the book. With the Army scientist/Dr. Will Smith version of Neville, you see the Polaroid photo wall of all the test subjects he's captured and who've subsequently died in his lab. And with the dictation notes he makes into the computer, you hear implied in the number of the latest test subject how many (dozens... hundreds?) he's captured and experimented on. And while still a pretty murderous thug, the leader of the infected is just really after his girfriend/mate. And his own intelligence is shown in how he kept infected dogs as pets, and laid his own traps etc.

So they at least did touch on the "Who really was the monster?" theme in the movie a little bit. And they make it clear it's part of his motivation to stay behind with the grenade and kill himself while the woman and boy escape with the final sample of the antibody to take to the survivor's fortress.  

I agree, not nearly as good as the book, but I give them props for at least including that theme at all.

This, fucking ass could not keep his shit together, and then he goes and gets his dog killed.

I hate that movie

Why not throw the grenade and escape with the women?

This.  Should be called, "I Am Stupid"

+1

Wow. Omega Man and I Am Legend are nothing like that, not even close.

I've only seen part of The Last Man on Earth, so I can't comment.

Because... I don't know.  That's completely different than how the book ended.



 

The book was much better than the movie.

That's because you read the book.  I would have never thought any of this, the movie may show this if you have the insight but to someone that didn't even know there was a book Neville is the last hope.  The girl infected was just another subject to a movie goer and the infected leader was just the Alpha Male of the pack.  That's Hollywood though for ya!

the movie was horrible compared to the book I dont even know why they called it I am legend

This.  I didn't see that angle at all either.  It was pretty much black and white as far as the antagomist vs. protagonist is concerned.

I haven't read the book, but if in the book the infected are preying on humans, which is what both Omega Man and I Am Legend assert, I'm calling BS on that author's hack play for irony.  It almost sounds as if the infected/vamps in the book are willing to coexist in peace with Neville or any other humans.  If that isn't the case, then the author has no logical basis for the philosophical conflict.  Neville, and every other human, would have the right to self-protection.  Would it reduce it to the morality of a man vs. bear story?  Sure.  But since the author creates the universe, it's his fault if it loses its logical coherence.

"The Last Man on Earth" is the only movie close to the orignal story. And the best movie, IMO.

Books > movies.

"Come out, Neville!"

I Am Legend is among the best of the horror/sci-fi novellas ever written, but converted to a movie, has failed horribly 3 times since the book was written back in the 50's. First was the early 60's 'The Last Man on Earth', and was actually screen written by Richard Matheson, but he was so upset with the way the studio wanted to go with his story, he refused to allow his name to be used in the screen credits as screen writer, or so the story goes. Then came the early 70's 'Omega Man' and it too was a pitty. Completely lost the message of the book. And then the Wil Smith version. Way, wrong IMHO, but closer to the idea of the book, but pathetic attempt. Should have just done a zombie movie and gotten over with it.

I think that story has yet to be told on film, with the proper zeal that was in the book.

Oh well, it won't embed.  You can watch the whole movie "Last Man on Earth" with Vincent Price online.  It's so old....





http://www.archive.org/details/the-last-man-on-earth







 

It's much, much bettter.  And the title actually makes sense in the book.

I've seen the 2007 movie, and the one with Charleton Heston, and thought neither were great.

The 2007 one was alright, but was too short to fully develop the story - what happened, how it progressed and how Neville's mental state deteriorated.   The Charelton Heston version was just super silly and cheesy.  

The movie and the book are two completely different animals.  "Last man on Earth" is much closer to Mathesons novella.

What I hate most about that movie is the vampires, its the same as the robots in that other Smith movie. They sucked.

The book was a personal view of a problem. Especially the part with his troubles with his vampire neighbor.

The latest movie was all Will Smith/Hollywood eye candy. I really couldn't care if he lived or died.

Yah, read the TOTALLY AWESOME () screenplay right before the Will Smith movie came out - http://www.horrorlair.com/scripts/legend.txt

Of course the movie sucked afterwards.

i downloaded the 2007 version with the alternate ending, that was SUPPOSE to be the real ending (until will smith fucked it up).

Made the movie far more cool.

I enjoyed the book's angle that Neville was not a super scientist who was mankind's last hope. He was just the unlucky schmuck who happened to be immune. It was a much better take on how an Everyman might survive the end of civilization.

The women was an / agent/ spy .

I liked the 2nd movie w Charleton Heston .  

best ever and maybe my fav movie !!