I kind of enjoyed the first 2/3 but was definitely puzzled by the ending. But yes, if the movie did a very poor job of establishing why he was a "legend", which kind of misses the whole point of the source material.
Should be interesting to see how they re-do the ending now to make a sequel. It seemed pretty definitive.
Call it ANYTHING else and I would have not hated it.
I Am Legend is a great great story. This is not that. They kept the guys ####ing name and that is it. Not a single plot point was the same.
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Originally Posted by Poe969
It's the Law of E=NG. If there was an Edmonton on Mars, it would stink like Uranus.
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Ant Man 3 is mostly fine. The CGI is not great at all and the plot is very generic with not a lot of consequences. Kang is good but very I'm going to conquer things because I like conquering and I'm the best. Is it the worst MCU film nope, I enjoyed it more than Thor Love and Thunder or Ant-Man 2 and probably a few others. Not sure why critics picked this one to voice their displeasure when it has all the same problems of films like Black Widow or Dr.Strange 2. Oh and also this one character drove me completely nuts and the CGI on them was awful and took me out of every scene they were in. Overall I'd give it 2.5/5
I say this one was worse than the others. Strange and the Cameos and fun Sam Rami stuff, black widow has some back story and some interesting things about the consequences or actions with taskmaster, this one is just blah.
Call it ANYTHING else and I would have not hated it.
I Am Legend is a great great story. This is not that. They kept the guys ####ing name and that is it. Not a single plot point was the same.
Will Smith's I Am Legend is a mashup of the book and The Omega Man movie which is based on the I Am Legend book but differs greatly. The ending definitely sucked in the Will Smith version.
There is also The Last Man on Earth but Matheson distanced himself from that as he didn't care for the outcome even though he was the screenwriter.
Will Smith's I Am Legend is a mashup of the book and The Omega Man movie which is based on the I Am Legend book but differs greatly. The ending definitely sucked in the Will Smith version.
There is also The Last Man on Earth but Matheson distanced himself from that as he didn't care for the outcome even though he was the screenwriter.
It's really nothing like Omega Man either, which kind of also missed the point of the whole "Legend" thing. In the Omega Man, it was thinking/talking mutants who were the enemies. A major issue with I Am Legend was that all the vampires were pretty mindless. They idea that they could communicate the Legend aspect wasn't very apparent.
I kind of feel like I don't need to even see the new Ant-Man and have a pretty good idea of the main takeaways (spoilers that are really just speculation I guess?)
Spoiler!
Kang is a legitimate big bad to try and get moviegoers to forget Thanos
Cassie takes a step towards being a hero in her own right, continuing that Champions/Young Avnegers setup
Maybe hints at the Marvels movie or even FF movie, given the magnitude of Kang's threat
Maybe Wasp dies or gets written out, as I get the sense Evangeline Lilly would like to get out of the MCU magnifying glass
As they say, sometimes it's more about the journey than the destination. Hope this journey is OK when I get around to seeing it.
One thing (of many) that doesn't make sense with Ant Man 3 is that the end credits scene of Ant Man 2 Janet is perfectly okay with Scott going into the quantum realm, in fact she helps him get there. And in this one she doesn't want anyone to go into the quantum realm but she never tells them why. That's a big inconsistency, unless I'm missing something.
One thing (of many) that doesn't make sense with Ant Man 3 is that the end credits scene of Ant Man 2 Janet is perfectly okay with Scott going into the quantum realm, in fact she helps him get there. And in this one she doesn't want anyone to go into the quantum realm but she never tells them why. That's a big inconsistency, unless I'm missing something.
I assumed she was upset with them doing the research without her involvement so she wouldn't be able to guide them.
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I assumed she was upset with them doing the research without her involvement so she wouldn't be able to guide them.
Plus, I'm assuming that Kang didn't have the massive empire he has at the start of AM3 and the quantum realm is absolutely massive. Maybe there's a big difference between just going to one section of it and haphazardly sending out a signal that anyone can receive.
I haven't seen AM3, just speculating. I'd also assume that they give some kind of explanation for why Janet didn't tell them about Kang.
I kind of enjoyed the first 2/3 but was definitely puzzled by the ending. But yes, if the movie did a very poor job of establishing why he was a "legend", which kind of misses the whole point of the source material.
Should be interesting to see how they re-do the ending now to make a sequel. It seemed pretty definitive.
There is actually a completed alternate ending based more off the book that you can see on the DVD or just watch online. They've said that ending will be considered canon and the storyline will be continuing on from there.
Spoilers for I Am Legend if you care:
Spoiler!
Theatrical ending
As the Darkseekers attack the lab, discovering the last treatment was successful, Neville assesses the situation as the Darkseeker alpha male rams himself against a glass door to break in. Neville draws a vial of blood from the woman he cured, and gives it to Anna, before shutting Ethan and her inside a coal chute in the back of the lab. Neville then kills both himself and the attacking Darkseekers with a grenade, saving the cure.
The following day, Anna and Ethan arrive at the survivors' camp in Bethel, where they are greeted by military officers and other survivors before Anna hands them the cure. Anna narrates how Neville's efforts and sacrifices to save humanity ultimately became legend.
Canon ending
As the Darkseekers attack the lab, the alpha male Darkseeker creates a butterfly shape while attempting to break through the glass to the laboratory. Neville realizes it is referencing the butterfly-shaped tattoo on the female Darkseeker's neck and the alpha male and his followers have simply been trying to recover his mate. Neville puts his gun down and returns the female. Neville and the alpha male stare each other down and Neville apologizes after seeing the latter emotionally respond to his mate's return. The alpha male departs with the rest of the pack. Once they are gone, a shocked Neville looks over at the many pictures of his test subjects and realizes he has become a monster in the eyes of the infected, showing remorse for the experiments he has undertaken over the years.
The next morning, Neville abandons his research and heads along with Anna and Ethan to Vermont as a changed man, in the hope of finding the survivors' colony. They cross the George Washington Bridge, while Anna delivers a hopeful monologue ending with the statement: "You are not alone."
While initially released as a book-accurate alternate ending the two-disc special edition DVD of I Am Legend in 2008, which had been removed from the theatrical cut due to negative response from initial test screening audiences,[9][10][11][12][13][14] in February 2023, it was confirmed that the sequel to I Am Legend would consider this ending to be the canonical one, with Will Smith reprising his role as Dr. Robert Neville, as he resumes his experiments on the Darkseekers.[15]
This showed up in my YouTube suggestions so I'm sharing. As much as I loved the 90s X-Men cartoon, I really with this actually got a series (minus Wolverine's Aussie accent).
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"This has been TheScorpion's shtick for years. All these hot takes, clickbait nonsense just to feed his social media algorithms." –Tuco
I dont know...I'm 80 minutes into Black Panther 2 and thus far its...well, its not great.
Which is an understatement. So if Ant-Man 87 or whatever is on the same par as this? Woof...
No, it's far worse.
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"This has been TheScorpion's shtick for years. All these hot takes, clickbait nonsense just to feed his social media algorithms." –Tuco
Without even diving into the film, the deceptive marketing for this film was really the first time it backfired for Marvel. A plot structured around Kang luring Scott into working with him by dangling returning his lost years with Cassie is infinitely more interesting than “Do what I say or I kill your daughter”. Just a massive letdown of emotional stakes right away.
In regards to the actual film, this was the first MCU film that I could see that a room full of non-creative executives really had their way with it.
Positives: Paul Rudd: he single-handedly held this movie together. That man can charm anything he’s in. Jonathan Majors: not even as close as interesting as he was in Loki, but a commanding presence on screen.
Cons: Where to begin
Writing:
This was some of the laziest scriptwriting I’ve seen, ever. Characters didn’t feel like real people, choices were made for the plot rather than character, and there was forced tension everywhere because Michelle Pfiefer’s character just kept refusing to tell vital and life saving information for half the movie.
The logic of so many scenes and characters didn’t make sense. Why would Kang lie to Scott about releasing Cassie and then chastise him during the climax for not taking his deal and leaving with his daughter? Why would Hope help shrink the core after she heard Janet say that was the only thing trapping Kang? And why wouldn’t Janet be freaking out seeing her failsafe was suddenly destroyed? How does Cassie shrink back down after being sized up by external Pym Particles and not the ones regulated in the suit? Why would the rebellion feel they could attack the fortress after Cassie’s message? It had no new or discovered weaknesses the rebels were unaware of. What would have altered their chances after decades of fighting?
Then there’s the terrible writing of any and all Cassie lines in that film. It’s a mess. She’s at first a jerk to Scott. She then makes some of the worst YA writing speeches I’ve heard in film in anything over a G rating. To me, this was some Disney exec stepping in and inserting some terrible Star Wars fan fiction in to the movie.
MODOK is a ridiculous character in any medium, but he wasn’t pushed far enough here. His final scene fell super flat to me because the buildup wasn’t there. To make that scene pay off, he should have been clearly a lot crazier and delusional. For a good chunk of the film he was just an angry “Darren”. That final scene could have been a great crescendo, but ultimately it didn’t save a terribly underutilised version of a terrific character.
Hope did absolutely nothing this movie, and interacted with Scott maybe 2-3 times total. Absolute waste of her in the film.
The rebels were a complete non-factor and outside of William Jackson Haper, completely unmemorable. Super underdeveloped and under-utilised.
The final fight with Kang. There’s no world where Scott Lang should have won a 1v1 fight with Kang the Conqueror. This guy is supposed to be an avengers level threat and Ant-Man just kicked his ass. A piece of me hoped that as the main characters were crossing the portal at the end, Kang walks in behind them after killing Scott and leaving him in the Quantum Realm. That would have been the mic-drop moment to start Phase 5. Instead we have Scott and Hope “sacrifice” themselves and then Cassie immediately finds a way to re-open the portal she shouldn’t be able to open and bring them home.
CGI:
It was bad. From Michelle Pfiefer’s “floating hand” when petting that flying beast, to just a terrible job of compositing actors into these elements, I am shocked with how bad the film looked. Marvel needs to either start using pre-rendered LED technology like the volume to find a way to match lighting or sticking to their pre-viz designs and creating matching light. This whole idea of shooting and then figuring out the CGI afterwards is hitting a breaking point, especially as so many other production houses (some that are much smaller) do it much better now. Also MODOK’s face was a nightmare and not in a good way. That could have used a lot more work.
I had a lot of hopes for this movie and it just dashed them. This is probably the worst marvel movie I’ve watched. 3/10.
There is actually a completed alternate ending based more off the book that you can see on the DVD or just watch online. They've said that ending will be considered canon and the storyline will be continuing on from there.
Spoilers for I Am Legend if you care:
Spoiler!
Theatrical ending
As the Darkseekers attack the lab, discovering the last treatment was successful, Neville assesses the situation as the Darkseeker alpha male rams himself against a glass door to break in. Neville draws a vial of blood from the woman he cured, and gives it to Anna, before shutting Ethan and her inside a coal chute in the back of the lab. Neville then kills both himself and the attacking Darkseekers with a grenade, saving the cure.
The following day, Anna and Ethan arrive at the survivors' camp in Bethel, where they are greeted by military officers and other survivors before Anna hands them the cure. Anna narrates how Neville's efforts and sacrifices to save humanity ultimately became legend.
Canon ending
As the Darkseekers attack the lab, the alpha male Darkseeker creates a butterfly shape while attempting to break through the glass to the laboratory. Neville realizes it is referencing the butterfly-shaped tattoo on the female Darkseeker's neck and the alpha male and his followers have simply been trying to recover his mate. Neville puts his gun down and returns the female. Neville and the alpha male stare each other down and Neville apologizes after seeing the latter emotionally respond to his mate's return. The alpha male departs with the rest of the pack. Once they are gone, a shocked Neville looks over at the many pictures of his test subjects and realizes he has become a monster in the eyes of the infected, showing remorse for the experiments he has undertaken over the years.
The next morning, Neville abandons his research and heads along with Anna and Ethan to Vermont as a changed man, in the hope of finding the survivors' colony. They cross the George Washington Bridge, while Anna delivers a hopeful monologue ending with the statement: "You are not alone."
While initially released as a book-accurate alternate ending the two-disc special edition DVD of I Am Legend in 2008, which had been removed from the theatrical cut due to negative response from initial test screening audiences,[9][10][11][12][13][14] in February 2023, it was confirmed that the sequel to I Am Legend would consider this ending to be the canonical one, with Will Smith reprising his role as Dr. Robert Neville, as he resumes his experiments on the Darkseekers.[15]
Book accurate?
Have none of them read the ####ing book?
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by Poe969
It's the Law of E=NG. If there was an Edmonton on Mars, it would stink like Uranus.
I thought BP2 was worse than AM3. And Love and Thunder is one of the worst comic book movies ever made.
Either way, Marvel is crashing and burning. They peaked with IW and it's been all downhill since. At first it was minor skid and more recently it's been a freefall.
I'd even say Disney as a whole has almost nothing going. They've all but ruined Star Wars. Andor was the lone bright spot in a series of failures where mediocrity has been hailed as success only because the failures are so awful that the ones that aren't seem wildly successful. Their live action remakes are crimes against humanity. Toy Story 5-7 I'm sure will be garbage, along with the rest of their announced sequels.
It's actually both sad and pathetic to see how far both DC and Marvel have fallen.
Last edited by Cecil Terwilliger; 02-22-2023 at 05:46 PM.
