I am a huge fan of Will Smith and can’t for the life of me think of a bad movie the guy has been in. I Am Legend wasn’t my favourite Will Smith movie but it was pretty incredible and the fact that he pretty much carried that movie single handedly make it all the better.
But I have to admit that when that movie ended I really didn’t think we’d ever be looking at a sequel that starred Will Smith for some pretty obvious reasons but apparently that may not be the case.
According to rumours the script for another I Am Alive movie is in the works and they are working to sign Will Smith on, originally it was going to be a prequel but that title has now been dropped.
I just hope they don’t try and convince us that Will Smith somehow could star in a sequel.
Last Updated: February 20, 2012
Gareth Lagesse
February 20, 2012 at 08:11
Forget Will Smith’s character, bring the dog back! 😉
Seriously though, we need Smith back in I am Legend movies like we need Russel Crowe in another Gladiator movie: we don’t.
Kervyn Cloete
February 20, 2012 at 11:05
If only they’d have stuck to the original story more. As much as I enjoyed Will Smith’s version (barring the absolutely retarded ending), the original novel was way way better.
Gavin Mannion
February 20, 2012 at 11:35
I didn’t know there was a book.. I really need to get back into reading
Kervyn Cloete
February 20, 2012 at 11:38
Yep, and it’s awesome. This is actually the 2nd adaptation of the book, the first being Charlton Heston’s Omega Man.
hairyknees
February 20, 2012 at 17:41
Watched the movie the other day and remembered that it was adapted from a book. Finished reading it about two weeks ago, and it really is pretty amazing! Its a short read though, more of a short story… but you should definitely check it out 🙂
Justin Hess
February 20, 2012 at 12:07
“I am a huge fan of Will Smith and can’t for the life of me think of a bad movie the guy has been in.”
Uhm, Bad Boys 2. Wild Wild West. MIB 3. Seven Pounds. Yeah, he’s got a few stinkers
Gavin Mannion
February 20, 2012 at 14:41
Noooo you can’t not like Bad Boys 2 and Wild Wild West.. they’re awesome…
Maybe I’ll give you MiB 3
Tauriq Moosa
February 20, 2012 at 14:59
But MiB 3 isn’t out yet?!
Justin Hess
February 20, 2012 at 15:15
Sorry, I meant MIB 2. But it’s pretty likely that the 3rd will poo poo as well
Justin Hess
February 20, 2012 at 15:11
Maybe I should give Wild Wild West another look. I tried to watch it. I really did. But fluff and production design without a hint of character or story tries my patience after a while and I gave up at that bit where Kenneth Branagh turned into a spider and someone dressed up as a lady. Cos dressing up as a lady always gets the “Ho ho ho”s going.
And Bad Boys 2. God help me, Bad Boys 2. I don’t think I’ve seen a more offensive film, barring that time I watched Birth of a Nation at film school. Answering the door and acting like a drunken stereotype of every black person to ever come out of Pop culture isn’t funny. It’s vulgar and tasteless.
Similarly, smashing through the houses of poor people unlucky enough to put their shacks in the way of your Humvee isn’t entertainment, much less something that can be comfortably excused by telling us that “that’s where the dealers make the drugs”.
Want to see a good BAD BOYS movie? Watch the first one. Everything that went so awfully wrong in the sequel worked with a joyous perfection in the first. The way the action built, the jokes, the playful friction between Lowry and Burnett, the chase scene, which is infinitely better than the bloated, exhausting sequence in the second. And Will Smith, usually someone with an easy screen charisma comes across in the second film as an obnoxious, arrogant and overpreening man-child (which he was in the first but never more gratingly than in the second)
I could literally write a full essay on how much I loathe the steaming excrement that is Bad Boys 2.
What an immensely kak film
Kervyn Cloete
February 20, 2012 at 15:58
THIS. One hundred thousand times, THIS!
Bad Boys 2 was Michael Bay at his excessive extreme. He took everything that made Bad Boys 1 work, and then thought that by just turning it all up to 11, he’d have a winner on his hands. He didn’t… he had a turd. And his shit stained hands have never been clean since.
Justin Hess
February 20, 2012 at 16:32
Too true. Admittedly, Bad Boys 2 was hardly Smith’s fault, but I do get pretty riled up whenever I hear someone calling it a good film. It’s not. It’s a bloated, exhausting turd
Tracy Benson
February 20, 2012 at 16:36
The best comment I heard about Bad Boys 2 was “They suffered from Technical Difficulties. Mainly, the sound was on and the lens cap was off”
Justin Hess
February 20, 2012 at 16:47
He he. Yeah, that sums it up nicely.
Skyblue
February 21, 2012 at 08:19
Google Kevin Smith’s comments on why Wild Wild West was such a mess, or better yet, watch An Evening With Kevin Smith and he’ll lay it out for you and you get to enjoy one of the funniest personalities working in Hollywood today – a must see for any movie fan
Tracy Benson
February 20, 2012 at 14:46
Say it ain’t so! Look I loved the movie, even if the “controversial original” ending was dropped in favour of a “blow everything up and screw the moral of the movie” ending, but a sequel? No, don’t see how it would be a good thing
Tauriq Moosa
February 20, 2012 at 14:57
Hated that Mormon-esque ending. Completely defeated Matheson’s vision in the original book. I enjoyed almost all of it up until he met that lady and kid.
Tracy Benson
February 20, 2012 at 16:37
I didn’t read the book, I should see if I can find it. Was it seriously vastly different from the movie?
Tauriq Moosa
February 20, 2012 at 17:06
It’s set in LA, Robert Neville is not a soldier, and he’s not a complete badass. It’s more depressing, terrifying and horrific than the film. Furthermore, the twist at the end and the commentary on society that Matheson made (written in 1954 – think race relations, Communism, etc.) was and is incredible. One of the greatest horror books I’ve ever read.
As to your specific question “Was it vastly different?” – I’m not sure. Smith managed to convey isolation, flirtations with madness and fear brilliantly. His character is amazing – the rest of the movie might as well not be even based on the book. So yes: the character in the film is quite similar, if not better than the one in the book, but everything else is much worse.