A little more on I am Legend..

Ok, so I did want to go back and write a little more about I am Legend, mostly because I was really excited to see the movie after reading the short story. So much wasted potential!

My biggest problem with the movie was the dark seekers. I think they made a real error when they decided to use CGI instead of real people. A lot of the tension in the book centers around Neville's crushing loneliness, which is aggravated by the taunts of the infected. He finds it particularly difficult to keep his sexual urges under control, even though the 'women' taunting him were basically the living dead (ew!).

The movie also totally erases the distinctions between the verbal/thinking infected and the mindless monster types. Not only were the CGI Dark Seekers NOT SCARY AT ALL, they made the movie into a monster flick. The whole point of the original story was the Neville became a legend to the 'thinking' infected--a scary, larger than life figure who stole through the night and staked them in their sleep. Although Neville did not understand the difference between the types of infected, it became clear at the end of the story that those who could still think had re-organized human society to function at night and Neville had been killing human beings. The intricacies of the story are thus lost when all of the infected are the dark seekers and are little more than mindless animals.

Also, I HATED that the Dark Seekers in the film kept roaring at him.. it looked ridiculous and really reminded me of The Mummy.