Butterfly

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

I was pleasantly surprised by I Am Legend. I was a longtime fan of the novella by Richard Mathieson and anxiously followed the long and winding road it took from page to screen. First it was going to be Ridley Scott and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Then Michael Bay and Will Smith. When I heard video/commercial/Constantine director Francis Lawrence was helming, I didn't have very high hopes. So when it finally came out this Christmas, I didn't see it for 3-4 weeks. I think I even used a discount pass to get in.

And I had a blast. The story was solid. Smith gave a real performance, not just a Movie Star performance. The dog was great. The secret, de-populating effects were stunning. The creature effects less so. But it was exciting and surprisingly moving, especially during the death scene about an hour in. I never thought I would choke up at a Will Smith zombie movie but I did.



SPOILER ALERT:

I thought the ending was good. It didn't blow me away but it was fine. I liked how Will Smith sacrificed himself. Very Bruce-Willis-in-Armageddon. Which for me is a good thing because Armageddon is a fantastic piece of guilty pleasure. I liked the colony at the end. The only thing I hated was how her SUV was perfectly waxed. I mean not a speck of dirt. She must have found a car wash on the way north. (Why she would waste precious fuel to run a generator to turn it on, I don't know.)

The DVD comes out in a couple of weeks and one of the bonus features is an alternate ending. Usually alternate endings are cop-outs. The hero lives, gets the girl, etc. But this is something else. I was blown away. To me, it gives the movie so much more humanity. Instead of the zombies just being zombies, they are now victims of a plague trying to hold onto as much normalcy they can get. It makes them so much more interesting. I only wish I could have seen this ending in the theater. I can only imagine how people would have reacted when she opened that door...

Luckily, you don't have to buy the DVD since it's already been posted on YouTube. I'd love to know what others think. Comment away.

UPDATE: Well, it looks like the folks at Warner Bros. are on to us folks on the internets and have taken down every single instance of the, now legendary, alternate ending. It was nice while it lasted.