Comments on: Richard Matheson: I Am Legend

By: Robin

Robin — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 22:39:30 +0000

I know this is an old post, but I stumbled upon it and read it. Really good review. Thank you! Now I have to admit an embarrasement. I’m so stunned! I saw the movie with Will Smith. Never once did I concatenate the infected with “Vampires”! I can’t believe I didn’t see that! And I thought I was a vampire fanatic…guess not. You learn something new every day.

Thanks for enlightening me.

By: steffee

steffee — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:43:28 +0000

Um, well I don’t live in Glasgow, so unless you’ve relocated to Wales, I’ll let you guess.

By: Stewart

Stewart — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 19:53:00 +0000

That depends. “the people you care about”, “the people in your street”, or “your next door neighbour”. Which one am I?

By: steffee

steffee — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 19:47:26 +0000

Ah, I see. Well, in that case…

Are you a vampire?

By: Stewart

Stewart — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:43:36 +0000

I can’t say I’ve ever been interested in vampires

These are very human vampires, steffee. Not your run-of-the-mill neck biters living in shadowy castles; instead they are the people you care about, the people in the street, your next door neighbour.

By: steffee

steffee — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 01:05:06 +0000

I agree that shorter works of fiction make better adaptations. Not too sure about this one, to be honest. I can’t say I’ve ever been interested in vampires, and whilst a scientific look at the topic is certainly more appealing than a horror one, I still just don’t know. Maybe, though.

Great review, anyway.

By: Stewart

Stewart — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 09:48:44 +0000

I don’t know about that, RoninC. Short stories tend to make for better adaptations than novels. And this was a novel, and movies have been made on less.

I’ll skip on your mention of All of Yesterday’s Tomorrows, though, as I don’t read self-published fiction. Thanks, anyway.

By: RoninC

RoninC — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 02:45:00 +0000

Will Smith is a great actor but the movie was not believable. Basing the movie on a such a short story was a stretch. I recommend reading All of Yesterdays Tomorrows. It poses questions to the reader of what they would do in a similiar situation.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:56:12 +0000

Yes - I’d forgotten there had been three film versions of this.

In a way, I thought the parts that identified the cause and treatment of “vampirism” belonged in a seperate book. I wasn’t interested in the science, at least not here, because Neville’s ‘last man on Earth’ plight was of most interest to me.

(I’m not going to compare ‘I Am Legend’ to ‘The Road’ because it’s not in the same league, but that’s a good example of a book that wisely chose to leave the science out of the catastrophe.)

By: jem

jem — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:40:49 +0000

Oooo I remember ‘Lost Souls’ - I recall there was a lot of absinthe drinking in it.