(SPOILER ALERT) I Am Legend could have been great, but there was a point at which I had to leave the room and go rant to Sarah about it (and then go hug my dog).
If you’ve seen the movie then you probably know now what I’m talking about: when the dog dies. Killing a pet in a movie is just mean. I don’t like it. Like most folks my age, I was traumatized by Turner & Hooch (and I still have a hard time liking Mark Wahlberg after Fear). [EDIT: And I refuse to watch or read Marley & Me.]
But I especially dislike the way I Am Legend kills the dog. Here’s why:
First, we get a suspense-packed scene where the dog chases a deer into a dark building. We’re on the edge of our seats, praying that the dog will make it. We hear mammalian screeches, see a pool of blood, then a furry snout. Our worst fears are around the corner until– nope, that was the deer. The dog made it out alive! Who cares about the deer, right? Woohoo, what a scene! At that point I was sucked into the movie. If I didn’t before, I now cared a lot about Will Smith and his dog. The filmmakers had done their duty. Bravo!
You want to write scenes like this for this exact purpose, unfortunately such strong medicine is not without side effects, that is, these kinds of scenes set up rules and make promises that the rest of the movie has to deliver on. This scene promises me that the dog will be okay. Will Smith will be more careful next time.
Does it keep its promise? Nope, a few scenes later the dog gets killed. And the worst part is, this scene is far less suspenseful, far less interesting than the previous scene where the dog lived.
So I think this should be a screenwriting rule, if the dog narrowly lives in one scene, you shouldn’t kill him off three scenes later. I realize that horror movies may want to break this rule and apparently I Am Legend tried to be a horror film in some ways, but damn…those CGI monsters were lame. So if you want to break this rule, you better make the latter scene, the death scene, twice as good as the near death scene.
I Am Legend is a wonderful movie to learn from because it is a trainwreck. I’d really like to read about the committee that put it together because there are loose threads everywhere. I bet somewhere though, there is an amazing first draft that someone forgot to shred.
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