So, Warner Bros. is moving forward with a prequel to I Am Legend. Rather than writing a good film they plan on bringing back Will Smith to reprise his role as scientist Robert Neville and chronicle the final days of humanity in New York before a man-made virus caused a plague that left Smith’s character the lone survivor among a mutated mob in the city. I Am Legend helmer Francis Lawrence is returning to direct with unproven scripter D.B. Weiss penning the screenplay.
I am sure some of you out there are excited about this. I don’t know why, but I am sure you are out there. However, have you considered the history of prequels?
Let’s take a look and see what WB is getting themselves into.
Red Dragon: Ratner’s excuse for a Hannibal Lecter film gone awry
Hannibal Rising: It’s like Benjamin Button was a serial killer, he just keeps getting younger and worse for it.
Star Wars Episode I, II, III and Clone Wars: Sure, die-hard Star Wars fans may like them because they are Star Wars films but I betcha you could even get a die-hard to admit these aren’t good films.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning: Yikes, I bet even horror fans forgot this one existed.
AVP: Alien vs. Predator and AVP-R: Yup, they’re prequels and they ain’t any good.
Exorcist: The Beginning and Dominion: It took two attempts at making this one and both failed.
Carlito’s Way: Rise to Power: Three words… Direct-to-video.
The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior: Take the same three words above and add AWFUL.
Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd: Never saw it, but from what I understand the label “one of the worst movies ever” may not be a bad description.
Minor Exception:
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: It’s a prequel sequentially, but it is a 100% independent story. However, I still believe it is the worst of the original three films. Rumor has it there is an even worse fourth film dealing with aliens. Any truth to that?
Major Exception:
Godfather Part II: This is one of my favorite films and it is both a prequel and a sequel, but the difference here is that the prequel story is used in comparison to the sequel story and used as a compare-and-contrast manner. I don’t think I have to make much of a case here as to why it is an exception, but if so let me know in the comment section below.
The Prequel’s Future:
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, Angels and Demons, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Hobbit, The Hobbit 2 and Star Trek.
I’ll admit, prequels are getting a little bit smarter as evidenced by the films above. Each one is a brand new independent story outside of the original films. Underworld 3 doesn’t have anything to do with the Seline character Kate Beckinsale played in the first two. Angels and Demons is just a new Robert Langdon adventure very similar to the way Temple of Doom was a new Indy adventure. The Hobbit and its sequel is independent of Lord of the Rings with a new character at the center of the story. Star Trek is a bit wishy-washy in terms of how good it is going to work. It satisfies the independent story, but it is using all the same characters and is going to be under a lot of scrutiny by fans of the original series.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is probably the only one of the bunch that is going to have some problems. The X-Men trilogy has had a lot to do with the Wolverine character and even X2 explored his origins already, albeit not in depth the way this film will, but nevertheless it’s treading used territory.
Now, for the I Am Legend prequel. This is a film I see as doomed from the outset. The only thing this film can even attempt to do is put together a bunch of “dazzling” effect scenes for Ben Lyons to applaud because we already know how the virus was created, how it got out and what happened at the end. There isn’t a lot of new ground to tread here that is going to surprise the audience.
The one major thing this flick has going for it is the Will Smith factor. Smith has become what is probably Hollywood’s biggest and most bankable star. On top of that I think he chooses his films rather wisely and is going to continue to do so in an attempt to remain big and bankable. If this script isn’t any good I don’t see him jumping on board. If you want to point at Hancock as a film proving an opposing viewpoint I suggest you read the original script and see what Smith signed on for and compare it to what it turned into.
Just my two cents.
