Talk.

"Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a..."

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:32:51 -0400

“Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. Ambition is only understood if it’s to rise to the top of some imaginary ladder of success. Someone who takes an undemanding job because it affords him the time to pursue other interests and activities is considered a flake. A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential-as if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth. You’ll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing, and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you’re doing. There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you’ll hear about them.”

- Bill Watterson (via mikekarnell)

thefrogman: This gifset is a bit misleading. It doesn’t mention...

Thu, 16 May 2013 07:42:23 -0400

thefrogman:

This gifset is a bit misleading. It doesn’t mention the part where he said he came to really appreciate the original series as an adult and has since watched all of the episodes. The writers he worked with are huge Star Trek fans. His philosophy was to try and make the movie accessible to everyone while still acknowledging the die hard fans. Whether he succeeded is a subjective opinion that you all can make on your own, but I think some folks are being unreasonable by judging him for the opinions of his youth. While I was a huge TNG fan as a kid, I also found the original series hard to watch until later in life.

I have seen every single episode and movie of every Star Trek series ever made. I think the reboot was amazing and will bring a lot of new fans to the source material. Movies are supposed to be more spectacle and TV shows usually delve deeper into philosophy. I guess I’m hoping the success of the movies may lead to more television series so we can have the best of both worlds.

Thank you, thefrogman, for introducing some reason and context to this gifset. I like to think that it’s possible to like both the original Star Trek series AND the Abrams reboot, and I’m a little bothered by how many people I see taking this interview out of context. What I saw Abrams’ approach was a great deal of respect for the original series, coupled with an acknowledgement that it’s by no means perfect, and that you HAVE to do some tweaking if you want to appeal to a broader audience … which was kind of the point of the reboot in the first place.

atopfourthwall: norsegays: astrolope: People being angry...

Wed, 15 May 2013 09:20:13 -0400

atopfourthwall:

norsegays:

astrolope:

People being angry about ~dem gays~ on Target’s Facebook.

I just want to give my two cents on this and tell you a story.

A couple weeks ago, I was hired at Target. I have a job at Target. Not a big deal right?

It is a big deal because i’m a transman.

It doesn’t take a genius to conclude that it’s hard for me, my brothers, and sisters to get a job. There are legal restraints regarding the job and if you don’t pass, it’s hard to be taken seriously at a job interview.

Right on the application, it asks what your preferred name is. It also asks if there is anything that target should know. I put the fact that I am a transman, expecting not to get a call because usually when you put that down, people will throw out the application. I got TWO interviews.

At the interview, they asked me about it. I told them I am on hormones and they told me that they didn’t care. Not in the sense that they don’t emotionally care, but that it didn’t matter. I was male and that’s all that mattered. They also told me that they give sex same couples benefits in states that do not recognize them as a married couple.

At my job orientation, I was not misgendered once. Even my supervisors who weren’t sure of my gender avoided pronoun use, which I found only happens when you’ve had pronoun training. They gave me a name tag with my preferred name and didn’t ask questions. I felt safe and respected, which is huge for a trans* person.

TLDR: Target is amazing not just for the LGB, but also the T. Shop there for the rest of your life.

Well, this clinches it:

I’m going to keep shopping at Target.

I haven’t done a lot of shopping at Target. That might just change.

Thin privilege is being told to kill yourself BECAUSE of your body size.

Wed, 15 May 2013 09:19:20 -0400

Thin privilege is being told to kill yourself BECAUSE of your body size.:

letmedicinebethyfood:

thisisthinprivilege:

(mod note: I am not reblogging this directly due to the images of horrifying and potentially triggering fat-hate - Fatanarchy)

This Indiana University of PA student is being consistently bullied to kill herself or lose weight. Campus and local authorities will do nothing.

President Michael A. Driscoll

Phone: 724-357-2200

http://www.iup.edu/president/default.aspx

CALL THE PRESIDENT’S OFFICE AND DEMAND TO KNOW WHAT HE IS GOING TO DO ABOUT THE BULLYING TAKING PLACE ON HIS CAMPUS IN THE NAME OF HIS SCHOOL.

Wow. So obviously, completely not okay. Spreading this as far as my meager following will take it because NOPE. People shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this.

John Green's tumblr: The Commencement Address

Sun, 12 May 2013 07:18:38 -0400

John Green's tumblr: The Commencement Address:

fishingboatproceeds:

Some people have asked to read the commencement address I delivered this morning to the 2013 graduates of Butler University. So here it is.

My own commencement speaker, who shall remain nameless, began with a lame joke about how these speeches only come in two varieties: Short and bad. This…

Photo

Fri, 03 May 2013 22:11:57 -0400

laughingsquid: Photo of a Little Kid in a Darth Vader Helmet...

Wed, 01 May 2013 20:36:37 -0400

laughingsquid:

Photo of a Little Kid in a Darth Vader Helmet ‘Vadering’ a Grown Man

codedlockfilms: aturtlespace: qelato: anniecrestadair: orange...

Wed, 01 May 2013 20:34:54 -0400

codedlockfilms:

aturtlespace:

qelato:

anniecrestadair:

orangeninjadan:

hickitty:

clarkkftw:

I’ve seen a lot of posts on my dash tonight about users who are threatening suicide, with other Tumblr members posting in effort to try to get ahold of them. I think you all should see this:

IF THERE IS EVER A TUMBLR USER WHO HAS POSTED A GOOD-BYE MESSAGE, SUICIDE NOTE, VIDEO, OR ANYTHING OF THE SORT, PLEASE FOLLOW THIS POST.

1. Scroll to the top of your dashboard.

2. See the circular question mark icon at the top? It’s the third one over from your home symbol. Click on that, and a screen similar to the one in the picture will come up.

3. Where you can type in questions, the box with the magnifying glass at the top, type in the word “suicide.”

4. Click on the first link that shows up. It should say, “Pass the URL of the blog on to us.”

5. Type in the user’s URL and tell Tumblr admin that the user is contemplating suicide and has posted a message indicating that they are going through with it or will be attempting. Hit send! Tumblr administration will perform a number of actions to contact the user and take the necessary steps to prevent the suicide.

TUMBLR: THIS COULD SAVE A USER’S LIFE. PLEASE DO NOT IGNORE SUICIDE THREATS.

Reblog this to keep other users aware. Suicide isn’t a joke, and neither is someone’s life. If you didn’t know this, someone else may not, either. Pass it on.

why on earth doesn’t this have more notes

I actually had to do this once. She lived.

if you scroll past this on your dash you are absolutely heartless.

I couldn’t ignore this - Just in case. I was not aware of this feature, and if it helps ANYONE, then it has served its purpose.

My one issue is with the comment that says “if you scroll past this on your dash you are absolutely heartless.” That kind of guilt-tripping helps nobody and makes people less likely to pass important things along because they feel like they’re being ordered or coerced.

But yes. This is very, very important. Pass it along if you are so inclined.

I suspect that this will be the best thing I read today, even...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 07:38:10 -0400

I suspect that this will be the best thing I read today, even though I’m reading it at 7:30 in the morning.

thetruthsweclingto: crimsong19: dlgr: shereejean: thecakebar:...

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 10:53:37 -0400

thetruthsweclingto:

crimsong19:

dlgr:

shereejean:

thecakebar:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownie Bombs (Eggless)

jesus christ.

gdi get in my mouth already

The operative word here being NOM!

Mattie! *points to deliciousness and grins*

Yes dear, I see them. =)

waaaahlbodayz: short-bread: [x] Stephen fry. Stop it. You...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 17:36:44 -0400

waaaahlbodayz:

short-bread:

[x]

Stephen fry. Stop it.

You are clearly being too smart. You are not of this Earth.

JULIE ANDREWS IN THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 06:34:44 -0400

JULIE ANDREWS IN THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE

NOTHING IS MORE PERFECT

Sine Nomine: Picking Fights on the Internet

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 23:01:14 -0400

Sine Nomine: Picking Fights on the Internet:

intelligencehavingfun:

So, you know who I really don’t like? People who go around looking for fights on the internet. Specifically, people who purposefully try to start fights on the internet where there was, previously, no fight to be had.

I’ve been rewatching Boy Meets World recently because I just obtained all…

I can’t say ^^THIS^^ strongly enough.

thetruthsweclingto: For some of their films, Disney would film...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 22:40:44 -0400

thetruthsweclingto:

For some of their films, Disney would film real actors so that the animators could watch them for reference.

So cool.

Many congrats on the engagement with Alicia! =)

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 18:08:33 -0400

Thank you! =D

Well, that was predictable (A REDA update)

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 12:11:24 -0400

So, due to a job fair, a two-year anniversary trip with my girlfriend, that same girlfriend becoming my fiance during that trip, trying to catch up on subbing, and stepping in to to be both an emergency actor in a one-act AND a church accompanist, things have been a tad busy, hence the lack of reviews for the past week and a half or so. Personally, I thought I was doing pretty well to make it through the first ten days of the month. So, I’m gonna try to get back to writing some reviews, though I don’t think I’m going to try to catch up with the days that I missed. I’ll just try to get through the remaining ten or eleven days of the month.

And yes, in case you missed it, I did announce my engagement to my girlfriend-now-fiance, Alicia, in the previous paragraph. =D I announced it on facebook and twitter, and I thought I should let my tumblr audience know too. (At some point, I’ll announce it on YouTube as well. Just not sure how I want to do that yet.)

Hope you all are well, and I hope to be back soon with another review!

-Matt

The value of a teacher

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 16:54:58 -0400

Me: So in Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell says there are three things that make a job worthwhile: meaning, complexity, and autonomy. What's missing from that list?
Junior 1: Money! That's what we always care about first.
Me: Is money enough of a reason to do a job?
Class (in unison): YES!
Me: Well, I find meaning, complexity, and autonomy in my job. Teaching is worthwhile.
Class: *crickets*
Junior 2: Didn't you ever want, well, more out of your life than (*gestures around the room*) THIS?
Me: How could I want more than this? Without my job, there ARE no other jobs.
Class: OMG, you're RIGHT!

fyeahsirvlad: thelightofdeadstars: goodnightvenom: shallowjoke...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 07:22:28 -0400

fyeahsirvlad:

thelightofdeadstars:

goodnightvenom:

shallowjokesandbrokenthoughts:

The educational system in one image.

Ahh this is clever.

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will spend the rest of its life thinking it’s an idiot.” -Albert Einstein

Perfect timing. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT.

Yes ohmigod

Admin: Kinda off-topic, but I think this is something that many of us need to see right now.

THIS.

REDA #10: The Sea of Monsters movie: My Thoughts

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 19:00:36 -0400

Three years ago, I did my second ever Review of Shame, looking at the movie adaptation of the first book in Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. After watching the movie (which I concluded was good, but not great) I was under the impression that the movie was so self-contained, basically eliminating everything that pertained to the overall arc of the series (Kronos’ rise, the prophecy, the pact between the Big Three, the character development of the Half Bloods, etc.) that the movie makers weren’t going to even try to adapt the rest of the series. It’s a syndrome I then called the “We Want To Remake The Success Of The Harry Potter Franchise But Not Really” syndrome, where moviemakers want to cash in popular children’s fantasy stories, but not to the point where they to make the entire series, so they’ll make the first movie in a timid sort of half-assed way, trying to make it so it will stand alone as its own story. (Although now, it almost seems like they’ve gone in the other direction, expanding The Hobbit into three movies, and so on. But I digress.)

But now, it seems, they’ve decided that they DO want to make the next book in the series, Sea of Monsters. A number of people have pointed this out to me, asked for my opinions on the trailer, and so on, and so … here it is.

First of all, if the trailer is any indication (and, to be sure, it isn’t always), then it looks as though they’ve decided to commit to this a little bit more than they did the first time around. That is, they’ve reintroduced a lot of the elements from the first book that they cut from the first movie, like the character of Clarisse, Kronos’ plan to come back, the pact between the Big Three, the fact that Annabeth is a blonde, things like that. So this movie feels a little bit more like it’s a part of the series. It seems less like a fun adventure into the world of modern day Greek mythology and more like something bigger. And it looks like, on its own at least, it’ll be a decent movie.

But … I do have my concerns. First off, watching this trailer, I felt like this movie was saying “Any resemblance this film may have to the first one we released three years ago is purely coincidental.” I mean, are we just going to completely ignore the first film, and the fact that it didn’t set up the rest of the series at all? I mean, I guess it’s possible, if we ignore the fact that they never once mentioned Kronos, Clarisse, OR the fact that the Big Three were forbidden to procreate with mortals in the first movie, three things that—if the trailer is to be believed—are going to play a pretty substantial role in Sea of Monsters. I can see some potential continuity gaffes from this.

Also, and I know everyone else has mentioned this too, but if they keep up at this rate, the actors playing the main characters are going to be in their thirties by the time we get to the last movie. I mean, they were pretty old to begin with, and I think that’s because the moviemakers didn’t want to go to the trouble of getting child actors who would have to become good adolescent and adult actors as well, especially if this series wasn’t going to take off. (Another indicator of the syndrome I mentioned before.) So, they just said, “Well, screw it, we’ll just make them teenagers.” ‘Kay. Except now, three years later, you’ve decided you DO want to make the rest of the series, and guys … they’re not kids anymore. They’re not. I mean, I know people made fun of the Harry Potter kids for being to old, but really, they weren’t just barely in their twenties when they filmed the last movie, which isn’t too far a stretch from seventeen or eighteen. These guys are supposed to be, like, twelve.

But, my reservations aside, I do think this will be a decent movie. I thought the first movie was decent, just not really comparable to the book. And if I’m really honest with myself, I don’t really see this one being comparable with the book either. I’ll be interested to see how (or if) they connect this film to the first one and how (or if) they explain all the elements they’ll need to explain. I have a feeling they’re going to spend a lot of time doing what the last two HP films did, and playing games of “Twenty Plot Points in Five Seconds” in order to give all the necessary exposition that they left out in the previous film. But I’ll give them a fair chance to do this book justice, I think I can honestly say that I’m looking forward to seeing the movie, and it’s for one very important reason.

Nathan Fillion as Hermes. ‘Nuff said.

REDA #9: I Am Legend: The Triple Review of Shame

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:26:00 -0400

Another one you might recognize from YouTube.

***

    It’s extremely rare that this happens, but there’s one story in particular that is definitely a Review of Shame—that is, the movies don’t even compete with the book in any of the categories—but it’s just interesting enough that it almost feels like it should qualify as a full Books vs. Movies review. Richard Matheson’s post-apocalyptic vampire/zombie novel I Am Legend has inspired three movies: The Last Man on Earth in 1964, The Omega Man in 1971, and I Am Legend in 2007. None of them, however, has really measured up to the original novel. The Last Man on Earth was the most faithful (with a screenplay by Matheson himself), I Am Legend was the best, and The Omega Man … well, yeah. But none of them have quite the thoughtful-provoking and intriguing nature of the novel.
    And yet, the way that each of these movies has chosen to adapt this novel is almost fascinating enough to merit a full review, even if none of the categories earn a win for movie. For instance, they each get three powerhouse actors to play the main role of Robert Neville, ostensibly one of the last survivors of some horrible plague that devastated humanity and turned everyone into some variant of a vampire/zombie. All alone and having lost his wife and daughter to the disease, Neville has barricaded himself in his home. His life becomes a routine of day-to-day survival, going out each morning to find and burn the bodies of plague victims, pillage the abandoned stores for food and supplies, study various medical texts for answers about this plague, how he might have survived it, and whether there might be a cure, occasionally visit the protected grave of his wife, and hopefully make it back to the house before the sun goes down and the light-sensitive vampires emerge again. In the book, it slowly becomes clear that his life has lost meaning. A cure is not remotely possible, there’s no one left alive, and his life is nothing more than his own personal survival. But he stubbornly carries on, seeking solace in his obsessive work routine, the music he has collected in his home, and a fair amount of alcohol.
    So, there are three things at work here. There’s the sympathetic side of the character, the human being mourning for his wife and daughter and for humanity in general; there’s the survivor, the tireless and emotionless worker who thrives on his routine of work and survival; and there’s the monster, the person who has been alone for so long, that he might not be any better than the vampires he’s fighting. All of these characterizations are at war with each other, giving us a very complex individual in a very dire situation.
    For the most part, you still get these characterizations in the movies. Vincent Price, the first to play the part in 1964, definitely gives us the emotionless survivor. His face is mostly expressionless, but not in a bad acting sort of way. He looks like a man who has been through hell, who has lost almost everything, and who just doesn’t really know how to feel anymore, making the few times when he does break down and show emotion very powerful. We get a bit of the monster as well, though that aspect is made a bit weaker in the face of the sheer incompetence of the villains. And unfortunately, it’s a bit more difficult to see the human side of his character, especially when we get to the end of the story … but more on that later.
    Charlton Heston, another big name star, took on the role in 1971, playing it as … well, Charlton Heston. We got the same “emotionless survivor” feel as Price, but with even less humanity. They eliminate the wife and daughter completely, making Heston just this last remaining human with no attachments. They do give him a romance of sorts, but it’s a little sporadic, born out of desperation more than anything, and the story would have functioned just as well without it. Heston pretty much plays the hero. He’s haunted by the past, but he’s not driven to the very edge of sanity by it, like his counterpart in the book.
    Will Smith probably gives us the best characterization of the three movies. We see a man mourning the death of his wife and daughter (though not due to the disease, as it turns out), a man trying to cope and get through the day, and a man who can sometimes be something of a monster. We see a coping mechanism for the loneliness, similar to the one from the Heston movie, where Smith gives names and personalities to a bunch of store mannequins. And the death of the dog from the book and the Price film is made a bit more personal by the fact that it’s actually his dog that dies, and not just a stray.
    But I think there’s one thing about the book Robert Neville that makes him far more interesting than his movie counterparts: he was never a scientist. He was a plant worker, a common everyday guy with a common everyday job. All three of the movie Nevilles were scientists or doctors of some sort, people who would have some sort of training that would help him to find a cure, and who were, in fact, looking for a cure. Robert Neville from the book had to teach himself everything. He took medical texts from libraries and just read up on anything he would need to know to find a cure for this disease. The fact is that Neville’s survival of the disease is purely chance, so it makes sense that he wouldn’t just happen to be a guy with training in the exact thing he needs to know to find a cure. And whether his self-training does any good is unclear. He doesn’t find a cure, but he does learn more about the disease. Because Neville truly is the last man in the world, he has to teach himself to be everything. This really brings home the reality of his luckless situation. It also doesn’t hurt that the book is the only version of this story where a cure for the disease isn’t even remotely plausible. We learn pretty early on that Neville is just deluding himself into think there’s a cure, but he’s so locked into survival instinct and desperation that he’s basically no more than a machine whose job it is to keep working, no matter what. Heston and Smith are both heroic figures, and even Price leans that way at times. Neville in the book just happens to be the last survivor, and if he’s special in any way, it’s because he was forced to make himself that way. It’s interesting to me that all three movie versions of the story chose to do very similar things to the character, probably to make him more palatable to the movie going audience.
    Something similar is done with the antagonist. The antagonist in this story is twofold. Most obviously, we have the vampires, which are done universally poorly in the movies. The vampires in Last Man are pretty much a joke. They’re so clumsy, slow, and stupid, that Price barely even has to fight to get through them. He pretty much just shoves them out of the way. They obviously went more for the “slow zombie” with these, while the book vampires are still just as quick as they were when they were alive. The Omega Man vampires are just … weird. Basically, once they get to the final stage of the disease, they form into this kind of … cult. They’re still intelligent and pretty much human-like, just sensitive to light and, for all intents and purposes, batshit insane. And they’re about as effective at actual fighting as the Last Man vampires.
    The I Am Legend movie vampires, on the other hand, are scary as hell. They’re fast, strong, and just one of them is easily able to overpower an ordinary human. They’re not intelligent, operating mostly on animal instinct, but that makes them a lot more unpredictable as well. The problem with these vampires, though, is that they don’t look like the people that they once were. One of the more haunting things about the book’s vampires is that they still looked, sounded, and sometimes even acted human. The vampire who leads the attack on Neville’s house is someone that Neville knew, and he still looks and sounds just like him, and even knows Neville’s name. The vampires in the Will Smith movie, however, start to take on a similar appearance, eventually looking exactly the same. In addition to the scientific validity of this, it essentially removes whatever humanity they have left. They’re just monsters, as opposed to monsters who look like lost friends and loved ones.
    Again, the vampires are made more palatable, removing either the threat of the vampire or removing the fact that they still look and sound like human beings. Oddly enough, the Omega Man vampires are the most human-like, but unfortunately they’re so silly looking that anything that might have been haunting about them is compromised. The second side of the antagonist of this story is the disease itself, which is also done differently in the movies. First off, in all three movies, the disease is curable. Price’s Robert Morgan finds through a blood transfusion with Ruth that his own immunities can be a cure for the disease, though he is killed before he can make this widely known. And both Heston and Smith die in their effort to bring a cure to the survivors, and both their movies end on a note of hope that the disease might be cured and the human race might live on. But for the story of the book, there is no cure. Neville is never able to find one, either because he simply doesn’t have the expertise or the intelligence, or because one doesn’t exist.
    There’s also the explanation for how the disease came about. Last Man doesn’t really explain it, but we can assume that it came about for the same reason as the book: random happenstance. Like most plagues, it just kind of happened. In Omega Man and I Am Legend the movie, however, mankind is the direct cause of the disease, turning the story into kind of a cautionary tale. Omega Man, coming when the war in Vietnam and Cold War with the Soviets was in full swing, laid the blame on a devastating biological weapon. I Am Legend took a subtler approach, and laid the blame on scientific progress, saying the plague came about because of an experimental drug that might cure cancer. While the latter is considerably more interesting than the former, both of these explanations give us an out, saying “If you’re not careful, this could happen to YOU! But you can prevent it!” In the book, there is no out. The plague came rapidly, without a cure, and there’s nothing we could have done to stop it. That makes it more frightening, because it makes the end of life as we know it seem inevitable. And really, that’s what it’s meant to be. The disease Matheson created is a fascinating one, because it seems entirely plausible. I love the explanations for the various trademarks of vampires, particularly their aversion to the cross, which is psychological more than biological. Not only are they fascinating, but they make perfect sense, at least to my untrained mind. The disease in this universe is making way for the next evolution of humanity, who basically have a chronic version of the disease where they still have many of symptoms, but haven’t lost their humanity. It’s basically saying, “Change is going to happen. Someday, somehow, life as we know it is going to end and the entire human race is going to change, and there’s nothing we can do about it.” Much more frightening and more fascinating than the safer Hollywood scenarios which offer a way out. The end of humanity is inevitable from the very first chapter in the book.
    The “survivors” in each of the stories reinforce this idea. In both the book and the Price movie, those who have managed to survive with a chronic version of the disease see themselves as the next evolution of humanity. To that end, not only are they wiping out the vampires, but they see Neville/Morgan as an anomaly that also needs to be eliminated. He is of the “old” way, and humanity cannot progress as long as he is around. We also see evidence in both versions of the story that this new wave of humanity seems considerably crueler than the old wave. They have no compunction over killing Neville/Morgan or in killing the vampires, which Neville himself only killed when he had to or when they were asleep. But in both of the other movies, the survivors are curable. They’re in an early stage of the disease in Omega Man, and they’re keeping the disease at bay as best they can in Legend. It’s Neville’s job, then, to get them a cure before they succumb to the disease. Again, the end is not inevitable. Also, it’s worth noting that despite the fact that the end of life as we know it is inevitable in the book, humanity continues to survive in some form. (This is also true of Last Man.) In the other two movies, however, the implication is that if Neville doesn’t get this cure, all of humanity will die. One speaks more to the evolution of nature, while the other is more of a desperate adventure. The thing that made the book’s story such a fascinating one is kind of compromised in favor of a more Hollywood-style formula for the movies.
    Imagery become another issue, and the only movie even a little comparable to the book is the most recent one. Last Man suffers from great deal of poor editing and dubbing, and in Omega Man, like I said before, the vampires look … well, silly. I will say that all three movies convey the desolate isolation of Robert Neville’s life very well. Each one opens with a long shot of a completely abandoned city, with Neville as the only one left. But the I Am Legend movie takes this even a step further with the numerous cars we see out in the middle of the streets, as if people just abandoned them right on the road. It seems like much more of a chaotic exit. The book conveys this feeling simply with the day-to-day routine of Neville’s survival. It doesn’t have to tell us “no one’s left.” It’s obvious through Neville’s actions and the progression of the story.
    And then there’s the story itself. Elements of it have already been discussed. In general, the book is more of a frightening philosophical statement about the nature of humanity and where we might be heading, while the movie is a pretty basic end-of-the-world adventure. And I think what really drives these points home is the endings of each story. Last Man ends with Vincent Price being killed by the plague survivors, and with his dying breath, denouncing them as freaks and claiming that he is the last true man on earth. Omega Man and the Will Smith movie both end with Neville sacrificing himself to protect the cure for the disease and get it to the survivors. Hell, Charlton Heston, bless his lack of subtlety, dies in the position of the crucifix, although Will Smith’s death was much more of an actual sacrifice than Heston’s, given that he knew he was going to die. In the latter’s case, the “I Am Legend” portion of the story is about Robert Neville becoming a legend to the survivors because he found the cure for the disease and sacrificed himself to get it to them.
    That’s all very nice, but it’s pretty predictable, especially when you consider the book’s entirely different take on the title. Before Ruth leaves Neville behind, she warns him that the survivors will be back to kill him and that he should run away. He chooses not to, and the survivors take him away to have him executed as a remnant of the old version of humans. Neville dies after taking a suicide tablet smuggled to him by Ruth, and his last dying thought is that he is a legend, not because he is particularly good or heroic or anything like that, but because he is the last of his kind. Just as vampires were legends to humans, humans like Neville will now be legends to this group of chronic vampires. This completely ordinary human being is a legend simply because he survived.
    The book is frightening because it says quite plainly that we are going to die. It says that some day, we will be nothing more than legends to those who come after us. It speaks to the inevitability of the ever-changing nature of humanity. And it does so without emotion, without subjectivity, without saying whether anything anyone does is right or wrong. It is simultaneously frightening or fascinating in a way that none of the movies really are.
    Is this, then, an example of a story that is unfilmable? Is there any way for anyone to truly capture the spirit and message of the original book? Last Man made a good attempt, but the execution was off. I Am Legend made a compelling story, but one that wasn’t nearly as interesting. And Omega Man … I don’t even know what they were going for. It’s interesting that after three fundamentally different attempts at adapting the story, we still haven’t come close. Maybe they’ll be another some day that will come closer.
    So are the current attempts even worth watching? I think the most recent one is. It’s not a bad movie, by any means, and it has a lot to offer. Last Man is worth a watch if you can get past the crummy editing and dubbing, and it’s probably closest to the book. I wouldn’t bother with Omega Man, personally, but if you’re a Heston fan, this is most definitely a Heston movie. But if you want a truly fascinating glimpse at humanity, evolution, and the legends of vampires, give Matheson’s novel a read.