Movie Review: I Am Legend
Dec. 21st, 2007 07:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yesthattomWill Smith has made some impressive biographical films. Ali, about the famous boxer and activist, Hitch, about the famous dating consultant, and now I Am Legend, documents the life story of American R&B singer John Legend.
It is expected that every biographical film has a few errors or changes. 90 minutes is too short to completely summarize the rich life of Cassius Clay; charactors were composites of real individuals. That's expected.
But this film goes too far. Let's look at some of the major differences:
John Legend went to University of Pennsylvania and worked as a business consultant for 3 years before starting his music career, which he has leveraged to promote many causes especially the monster problem of global, extreme, poverty (see the The Show Me Campaign).
In "I Am Legend", Will Smith's character is a college-educated young African-American working in NYC's business world. Ok, they glossed over which school, etc. However, the director took an extreme liberty and portayed the monster problem that John Legend tackles, and symbolized them as mutant monsters attacking and killing everyone in NYC.
The remainder of the movie diverges from John Legend's life further: John has no children (in the film he has a daughter) and other differences that would, well, spoil the rest of the film if I told you (HINT: Big, fuckin', scary monsters).
In all the film was very good, a decent plot with a lot of special effects which will scare the beegeezes out of you. However it is not a heartwarming Christmas film (see it on December 26th), and don't expect a lot of historical accuracy if you are a fan of one of the best contemporary singers of our day.
It is expected that every biographical film has a few errors or changes. 90 minutes is too short to completely summarize the rich life of Cassius Clay; charactors were composites of real individuals. That's expected.
But this film goes too far. Let's look at some of the major differences:
John Legend went to University of Pennsylvania and worked as a business consultant for 3 years before starting his music career, which he has leveraged to promote many causes especially the monster problem of global, extreme, poverty (see the The Show Me Campaign).
In "I Am Legend", Will Smith's character is a college-educated young African-American working in NYC's business world. Ok, they glossed over which school, etc. However, the director took an extreme liberty and portayed the monster problem that John Legend tackles, and symbolized them as mutant monsters attacking and killing everyone in NYC.
The remainder of the movie diverges from John Legend's life further: John has no children (in the film he has a daughter) and other differences that would, well, spoil the rest of the film if I told you (HINT: Big, fuckin', scary monsters).
In all the film was very good, a decent plot with a lot of special effects which will scare the beegeezes out of you. However it is not a heartwarming Christmas film (see it on December 26th), and don't expect a lot of historical accuracy if you are a fan of one of the best contemporary singers of our day.
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Date: 2007-12-21 12:55 pm (UTC)This is a whoosh, right?
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Date: 2007-12-21 02:07 pm (UTC)I mean, hell, I've seen Shakespeare set in WWII Italy, and I didn't complain, it was quite well done.
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Date: 2007-12-21 03:43 pm (UTC)But they do some clever music tie-ins, which I will not discuss further here. :-)
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Date: 2007-12-22 01:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-21 10:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-22 01:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-21 11:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-26 10:56 pm (UTC)