How Does Richard Matheson Use Cgi In Modern Disaster Films

In Richard Matheson's passage, “I Am Legend”, he uses an array of rhetorical devices to emphasize Neville's perspective of his current situation.

In Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend, he uses an abundant amount of rhetorical devices to help the readers envision the scene Robert Neville is being dragged into.

When one hears the title I Am Legend being mentioned, they usually associate it with Will Smith and the terrific job he did in portraying the protagonist of the story Robert Neville. However, what they typically leave out is the equally terrific job done by author Richard Matheson coming up with the storyline and writing the original book version. While Richard Matheson’s post-apocalyptic science fiction book, I Am Legend, and Francis Lawrence’s post-apocalyptic science fiction movie, I Am Legend, both have similarities and differences, in the end, the original book version prevails mainly because the movie version alters the original storyline too much.

Richard Matheson, the most prominent American author in the horror genre, who published the preeminent horror novel, I Am Legend in 1954, renders Robert Neville as the hero of the novel as he struggles to overcome a constant battle against the vampires and his subconscious mind. At the end of the novel, Robert Neville can be interpreted to finally have the ability to see the world through the perspective of the vampires which, ultimately, leads him to be able to understand them. Matheson reveals the true monster to be not the vampires nor Robert Neville, but prejudice. However, Matheson first establishes a connection between Robert Neville and the audience. This connection allows the message, that prejudice is capable of being the darkest

By presenting Count Dracula as an evil, demonic being, the story is therefore laid out as a fight between good and evil. Contrastively, the vampires in I Am Legend are not physically described in as much detail, but rather the details and attention are focused on their behaviour and their origin. The horror aspects of these vampires are pushed to the side and the readers are made to focus solely on their threatening presence as they prowl around at night and hunt for Neville while he, in turn, tries to discover what the specific virus that infected the world and caused the vampire epidemic. These differences are key in setting up how the readers respond to the novels’ plot and themes.

I Am Legend and Life of Pi are two dramatic tragedies that center around the main characters Dr. Robert Neville and Piscine “Pi” Patel while they attempt to survive in the devastating world around them. In I Am Legend, Dr. Krippin finds a cure for Cancer by modifying the measles virus into a vaccine. For years, one hundred percent of the patients are cancer-free, thankful that they get a second chance at life. All of a sudden, the cure rapidly mutates into an extremely deadly virus that is equivalent to the highest level of rabies, the KV virus. Dr. Robert Neville devotes himself to finding a cure for the devastation of humanity and must make the ultimate sacrifice for its sake. Piscine Patel lives with his family in a small town in India. While visiting his family’s zoo, Pi falls in love with a beautiful bengal tiger that he names Richard Parker. As Pi grows, he falls in love and fascinates himself with many different religions. The extreme political unrest in his country forces Pi and his family to depart from the place they call home. This event begins the unfortunate, dreadful adventure that causes Pi to lose his entire family. While viewing, evaluating, and juxtaposing I Am Legend and Life of Pi, there is a vast array of emotions, logical and illogical circumstances, and vivid imagery through memories, graphics, imagination, and utter desperation.

When a book is made into a movie, everyone has contrasting opinions as to which was superior. Although, more times than not, you will hear that the book was better. I’ve heard it a million times; you’ve heard it a million times. In the case of I am Legend, however, the two are so drastically different that it is difficult to even compare them. In the book, there are vampires attempting to lead Robert Neville to his inevitable doom, while in the movie there are zombies.

Humans have been known to live together in packs, as part of a much larger society. Whether it is on a personal level or by a simple wave to a next door neighbor, the social interactions permitted through this lifestyle plays an important role in keeping individuals sane and is necessary for their survival. This is evident in the movie, I Am Legend. The film is based on a novel written by Richard Matheson in 1954 as a cross between horror and science fiction. It was later remade into a movie, in 2007, by multi-award winning, Hollywood director Francis Lawrence. The movie follows the protagonist, Robert Neville, through his journey as one of the few remaining survivors on Earth, after an attempt at a cancer preventing vaccine leads to an

The film, I Am Legend is a post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Will Smith. It was released on December 14th, 2007. This film is actually the third adaptation of Richard Matheson’s novel of the same name from 1954. Smith plays virologist Robert Neville, who lives in New York City in 2012, which is inhabited by animalistic victims of the virus. He is immune to a vicious man-made virus originally created to cure cancer and works to

In a story, things are often not quite what they seem to be. Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon and Michaelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up are good examples of stories that are not what they first appear to be. Through the medium of film, these stories unfold in different and exiting ways that give us interesting arguments on the nature of truth and reality.

In the science fiction thriller, I Am Legend, Richard Matheson uses the idea of survival to demonstrate the changes that can happen inside a person when put in a life or death situation. Robert Neville is the main character in Matheson’s novel. Matheson uses Neville to walk readers through the life of a person who has gone through a nation-wide crisis. After surviving for a few years by barricading his house and fighting off vampires, Neville gets curious and turns to science for answers, “Then he got a specimen of blood from a woman” (86). In order to stay sane, Neville turns to science. His survival skills he already possesses aren’t enough for him-- he needs to understand the virus so he could better defend himself. After being alone for so long, Neville learns how to survive alone; he learns how to

In 1954, American writer, Richard Matheson, wrote a piece of horror fiction so powerful and influential that Hollywood still capitalizes on it today. 10 years after the publication date of I Am Legend, Vincent Price starred as the last lone survivor in a post-apocalyptic world over run by zombie vampires in The Last Man on Earth. Advancing 10 more years, and it became really interesting in part because the 70’s ensue where love, politics, sex, war, and drugs were predominant themes. Some monumental events took place in the late 60’s, and the deep-rooted effects of them are represented in the next adaptation of Matheson’s novel, The Omega Man. More dynamic and thrilling then The Last Man on Earth, The Omega Man adds more to the narrative then

As Noel Carroll states in his essay, The Nature of Horror, horror is one of the genres “in which ideally the emotive responses of the audience run parallel to the emotion of characters” (Carroll 52). It is also true in Matheson’s novel I Am Legend. By showing the protagonist’s tragic experience, the author deftly engenders the audience’s sympathetic emotion to the main character, which initially makes the audience believe the main character will be a hero to heal the world. However, the emergence of Ruth is the turning point of the novel. The relation and difference between Ruth and the main character add doubts on the main character’s humanity, because the main character is living in a world where creatures like Ruth is the predominant type, rather than someone like him who is immune to the plague. The main character initially sees himself as a hero who tries to do biological experiments to save the world. However, after Ruth’s emergence, he knows that he is as supernatural monster immune to the bacteria in the other creatures’ eyes. The author manipulates the expectation of the audience by initially shaping the character as a hero and finally subverting the expectation of the horror genre - suggesting the main character is the monster. As Tony Magistrale and Michael A. Morrison states in their essay, Introduction to Dark Night’s Dreaming, “The horror monster sometimes embodies the worst

The film I am Legend, follows a US Army virologist Robert Neville’s quest of survival in a post-apocalyptic world. In the film, the entirety of mankind is nearly wiped out from a virus, but Neville is the only human alive with human qualities. The only other people that are living in that society are hostile mutants, who have no traits reflective of mankind, these are people ready to do anything for survival. The city that they had once lived has fallen to ruins, and Neville must take cautious measures to ensure he is not captured by these mutated humans. The books general concept of a man and son struggling to survival in a ruined city reminded me of the movie, I am Legend.

IT has also changed the way movies are shot particularly through application of film special effects. The film industry heavily relies on illusions to simulate imaginary events in a story (McClean, 2007). Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) is another key technology that is applied to special effects to enhance films. CGI is mainly used in special effects to enable filmmakers to control the scenes instead of using many extra actors. This has simplified film production and reduced the costs incurred. A lot of movies especially those classified under fiction, action, and horror genres rely on CGI.