#39. I Am Legend. Richard Matheson. 3.5 Stars

This was a great piece. I read it less because of the upcoming film and more because of what Adam told me it was about, which is awesome.

For the uninitiated, I Am Legend is a pretty remarkable story about a man that is the last survivor in a world plagued by “vampires”. I’m hesitant to give away much more so as not to spoil the story plot(s), as that is the best part of the book, it’s a pretty interesting idea, and certainly for its time (written in 1954) it must have been mind blowing in its revolutionary thinking. From reading Legend it is no surprise that Matheson was one of the primary brilliant minds behind many of the Twilight Zone stories. Overall the story idea was what won me over, and what is the strength of Matheson’s piece.  I found some of the writing to be a bit weak, and the ending to be rushed, when it should have been milked for all its brilliant revelations, but overall it was a fast and interesting read.

After reading I Am Legend, Adam and I watched The Omega Man, a 1970’s film starring Charleton Heston, which is loosely based on Legend. And when I say loosely based, I mean they took some of the awesome ideas and then went off on their own with terrible terrible ideas (including but not limited to:  monk’s robes, sunglasses, “badass one liners”, a stereotypically black power “hot mama” character, young white kids with innocent little faces, and bad white make up) and made a truly horrific movie. It was cringe-inducingly bad. We plan to also watch The Last Man On Earth this week, also based on I Am Legend, which I doubt, but hope, will be better.  As for I Am Legend, the upcoming Will Smith vehicle, based on previews, I am cautiously optimistic, from what I have seen there are far more similarities to the original story, and thus a more interesting film.

At the risk of going into a full blown rant, I must say Hollywood pisses me off to no end with their assumption that they can somehow better an author’s original vision. Of course some changes must be made to a novel as film is a different medium and therefore there need to be adjustments to make a story effective in a new medium, but most of the things I see Hollywood doing to films has nothing to do with adjusting for the medium and more with pouring ideas into the “hollywood machine” and mushing things together until they get something nice and bland prepared for the idiotic masses and then cranking them out one after the other like barbie dolls. It’s so very arrogant. I don’t understand why they bother in acquiring an author’s original vision and then not trusting that vision to lead them through.  Ahh…it makes me tired just thinking about it.

I Am Legend…3.5 stars, and recommended to anyone who likes Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian stories.