The Campaign Builder's Guild

Just bought it on DVD and watched it. Really like the movie, always liked Will Smith as an actor.

Thoughts?

Will Smith is a hit and miss actor for me. I am Legend was Ok, same with the first MIB and Independence Day. Wild Wild West and the second MIB movie are real low points in his career, IMO.

Back on topic, I found the movie to be entertaining and fun, enough to watch it again some time in the future. :)

The original ending on the DVD makes the movie much better than the theatrical ending. Overall a good movie.

I haven't seen the DVD version. How does that end?

I liked the movie, but I hated the name of it. In regards to Will Smith, I don't think I have seen enough of his movies to be able to say.

I never saw it in theatres. :/ How is it different?

I thought it was awesome. Just awesome. Especially awesome if you sit in the first few rows of a giant theater.

I liked it pretty well. I haven't seen the DVD, but I actually liked the theatrical ending. It kind of redeemed the title for me a bit, too.

Quote from: PhoenixI haven't seen the DVD, but I actually liked the theatrical ending. It kind of redeemed the title for me a bit, too.

I never said I didn't like the theatrical ending. It's just that with that ending it's a 3-star movie, and with the original ending it's a 4-star movie. And the title makes more sense with the original ending too. :P

Quote from: WickedTrollI never saw it in theatres. :/ How is it different?

Of course this is a big spoiler:
[spoiler]The theatrical end changes when the head vampire is about to break through the glass. Instead of Will Smith looking over and seeing a butterfly tattooed on the cured female vampire, the cracks on the glass form a huge butterfly, and then he notices a butterfly tattoo on Marie's neck. He collects some of the cured vamp's blood and gives the vial to Marie, then hides her and the boy in a blast-proof hatch in the wall. Then he pulls out a grenade and waits for the head vampire to finish breaking a hole in the glass - when he's about to succeed, Will Smith pops the pin out of the grenade and blows them all up when the glass is gone. Marie and the boy survive due to the door, and they deliver the vial to the camp she was headed for - presumably where the cure can be finished and used. Nothing is made of the vampire's intelligence, and none of them ever realize that the vamps aren't just mindless monsters.[/spoiler]

Why, what happens on the DVDs?

MythMage - that's how it happens on the DVD I have :/ But I gathered from the animated comics and a discussion I heard a while back what the other ending actually is.

Care to post it? :D

Quote from: WickedTrollMythMage - that's how it happens on the DVD I have :/ But I gathered from the animated comics and a discussion I heard a while back what the other ending actually is.

Sorry for being unclear - it's not on all the DVDs. Just the new special edition put out on March 21st.

Quote from: Higgs BosonCare to post it? :D

 [spoiler=Major Spoiler] I gather from the animated comics that near the end of the other version, they discover that the "zombies" or "vampires" or whatever you want to call them are still intelligent and see the remaining humans as threats - and the remaining humans become the "monster" for them, as they hunt them down while they're sleeping or otherwise vulnerable and capture them for experiments, as he was doing in the movie.

Am I right on that, MythMage?[/spoiler]

I was really enjoying the movie up until the woman and kid appeared, then I pretty much tuned out.  It just seemed so bloody contrived, like we can't invest ourselves in the movie unless something "real" is at stake (and you know, the obscenely exhausted cliche of damsel/cherub in distress is the perfect stake to stick in a movie which up to this point was being perfectly badass on its own merits).

The alternate ending is the better ending for me.  It reestablishes the connection between the monsters and the man, makes a monster of the man, and in general has a more poignant tone (sure, self-sacrifice is emotional and all, but its a cheap and uncreative tactic that doesn't require any real human connect whatsoever).

It definitely isn't the ending I would ask for, but it's closer to it.

To me, the big problem with this movie was the same problem I have with a lot of "vampire" stories, and one of the many reasons I got sick of playing V:tM.

[ic=Vampire Hunter strategy meeting]
Light is bad. Light kills these guys like nothing else... got that? Good, now forget it, we're not going to put UV lights everywhere for protection, or shoot out the windows of dark hiding places, or any of that... we're going to do our fighting with guns instead, because it looks so much cooler. :P
[/ic]

It makes the movie rather illogical, though, to the point that anything bad happening starts to make very little sense.