Alternative ending to 'I Am Legend'

[Madame Adequate]

That ending was ridiculous. Obviously they were trying to show that the "vampires" were capable of thinking rather than just being crazed rabid humans, but did they have to do it in such a stinky way?

Ugh. Why couldn't they have just kept the whole movie closer to the book?

Because you can just read the book if you want the story the book tells.

Wait, what? The entire point of book-to-movie adaptations is a visual representation of a preexisting story.

Really? I've never heard that before. Except from people who take offense that their fave book wasn't faithfully adapted. I have always understood it to be a reinterpretation of the story - because you cannot film a book. It just doesn't work. It can't be done. You change things, that's just how it works. That's why you don't get faithful adaptations. Because they're impossible.

[Yamaneko]

It's a good idea to follow the book closely when your film adaptation's ending is so crappy. They should have had Neville commit suicide. That would have been the best ending.

[fire_of_avalon]

2. Neville dying fits the original story, and this one, though for very different reasons. The fact that he basically fails to cure the infection seems to wound him more than dying to see it actually works (in the new ending as opposed to the theatrical version) He isn't really a legend in the alternate, which doesn't fit, so you're right there.
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The woman is still cured, because that realization happens before the point the alternate ending starts. So he could still be Legend.

I was going to read the book this week, but our ENORMOUS LIBRARY WITH 6 BILLION TEXTS only has one copy. Due in early April. So I guess I'll read it then.

[Madame Adequate]

It's a good idea to follow the book closely when your film adaptation's ending is so crappy. They should have had Neville commit suicide. That would have been the best ending.

Oh Yams, you wacky man!

Though the ending sure could have been better.

WTB: Tale of loneliness and despair that ends without hope.

[Miriel]

Really? I've never heard that before. Except from people who take offense that their fave book wasn't faithfully adapted. I have always understood it to be a reinterpretation of the story - because you cannot film a book. It just doesn't work. It can't be done. You change things, that's just how it works. That's why you don't get faithful adaptations. Because they're impossible.

Oh puh-lease! As if the people commenting on the lameness of I am Legend as compared to the book are fanatic fan-people who wanted an exact replica of a book to be played out on screen.

The book told a good story. The movie, not so much. A good majority of the film was decent, some parts of it was awesome, but the ending pretty much sucked. The ending of the book did not suck. The film is an adaptation of the book. Do ya see why people would complain? There is no reason to have changed so DRASTICALLY from the book except for purposes of dumbing it down. There was no reason to dumb it down.

So much was changed that it's really not much of an adaptation. More of an "Inspired by..."

[Peegee]

The book's ending is better. From wikipedia:

Neville encounters an apparently uninfected woman named Ruth; startled, she runs away. Neville chases her and after a struggle drags her back to his house. Suspicious that she is infected, Neville questions her. He reveals that as well as vampires, he kills the infected, believing that sooner or later they will die and come after him. Despite their mistrust, Neville and Ruth share an evening of platonic love.

However, when Neville performs a blood test on her, her infection is revealed. Ruth knocks him out and escapes, but leaves a note, explaining that she was a spy from a primitive new society; her people are infected but have discovered a means to hold the disease at bay. She warns him to leave before they come to destroy him. Neville decides to stay.

Months later, hunters from the new society capture Neville, and take him for public execution. Before he can be executed, Ruth provides him with pills so that he will feel no pain. Neville takes the pills; before he is executed he reflects on how the new society regards him as a monster. Just as vampires were regarded as legendary monsters that preyed on the vulnerable humans in their beds, Neville has become a mythical figure that kills both vampires and the still-living while they are sleeping, thus the book ends with his final revelation: "I am legend."

Not wanting to write a frigging book report, but the proper meaning of the film's title is that Neville becomes an oddity just as the infected were oddities to the uninfected.

[Spawn of Sephiroth]

So, what is so controversial about the alteranate ending? I don't get why its suppose to be.

[Madame Adequate]

Really? I've never heard that before. Except from people who take offense that their fave book wasn't faithfully adapted. I have always understood it to be a reinterpretation of the story - because you cannot film a book. It just doesn't work. It can't be done. You change things, that's just how it works. That's why you don't get faithful adaptations. Because they're impossible.

Oh puh-lease! As if the people commenting on the lameness of I am Legend as compared to the book are fanatic fan-people who wanted an exact replica of a book to be played out on screen.

Well given that I've never once in my entire life come across any other reason...