Quiroga Compare and Contrast

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Jose Quiroga Mr. Newman English 101: Rhetoric October 16, 2013 Legendary Reviews A cure for cancer was the goal, but instead a virus was created that either killed the person or turned them into a flesh-eating zombie. In I Am Legend director Francis Lawrence offers a possible outcome as to what would happen if a virus were to ever break out. Robert Neville (Will Smith) is the last surviving human in Manhattan, New York; immune to the virus for unknown reasons he relies on himself and his dog, Sam, for survival. He dedicates his life trying to produce a vaccine that can prevent the spread of the virus. As good as movies come everyone has a different view on it. Robert Ebert, movie critic and writer for the Chicago SunTimes, is well known for his movie reviews. Throughout his review he states his confusion about certain aspects of the movie but overall gives a positive criticism. In his review that was in The Wall Street Journal, Joe Morgenstern’s criticism for I Am Legend differs compared to Ebert’s, but there is some similarity. Although Ebert and Morgenstern both open their review by explaining what it would be like to live in Manhattan during a viral breakout, they differ on their main focuses of their reviews and the effectiveness of the zombies and monsters that roam the streets of New York at night. By using descriptive language to create an image of what an abandoned Manhattan looks like. Morgenstern and Ebert both open their reviews using this technique. Ebert gives a clear image of the Manhattan landscape after the viral breakout: “The streets are overgrown with weeds, cars are abandoned, the infrastructure is beginning to collapse.” Morgenstern opens with

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the same concept but uses different wording; “so you’re the last human being in New York City, maybe on earth. That’s not good, since you’re a social animal and you can hardly hang out with hordes of murderous zombies…” The point of these openings is to explain to the reader that Neville is alone and has the city to himself. Nothing is left besides the ruins of the city and blood-thirsty monsters. Morgenstern continues explaining what life is like being alone in a city, “you’ve got the city to yourself in the daytime – no gridlock, no pickpockets, no bicycle messengers to dodge.” Ebert also continues to describe the scenery. These two authors both use a similar introduction to begin their reviews, but there are some key differences in the reviews. The overall content is the main difference within the reviews. Ebert’s review focuses a lot more on the actual logic of the movie. He explains how many times the actions of the actors tend to be confusing; when Ebert describes Neville’s motivation for finding a vaccine he states that the movie is not logical, “In I Am Legend, the situation raises questions of logic. If Neville firmly believes he is the last healthy man alive, who is the vaccine for?” Ebert also brings up another point in the movie when he is rescued by a young woman (Anna) and a boy (Ethan) from an attack of the zombies. He says, “I doubt that she and the boy would venture through Manhattan to get there.” He completes his thought by asking how did they even get to Manhattan, “but we have seen every bridge into Manhattan blown up as part of a quarantine of the island, so how did they get there? Boat? Why go to the risk?” Ebert’s writing clearly shows his confusion about the movie, whereas Morgenstern has a lot of focus centered on Will Smith (Robert Neville in I Am Legend). Throughout his review, Morgenstern continues to compliment Smith as an actor, but fails to really talk much about the movie. In his introduction Morgenstern already compliments Smith by saying that he “does a terrific job of holding our attention." In the third paragraph he makes a comment saying "the actor is in impressive shape." Even in the fourth paragraph

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Morgenstern again comments on smith; "Mr. Smith also gets to do a charming imitation of Bob Marley." The reviews not only differ in content but the critics also disagree on the effect or role the monsters have in the film. In Ebert's review he describes the zombies in more detail than Morgenstern, "hairless creatures who were once human but have changed into savage, speechless killers with fangs for teeth." Morgenstern just says "zombies are zombies." Morgenstern does mention say that the zombies take away from the film. He says “those damned zombies are everywhere, overwhelming the proceedings with their slobbering and howling,” and also says that the “mostly digital creations of variable quality, keep draining the distinction that the movie seeks and occasionally finds.” Ebert has a different opinion on the monsters. Ebert believes that they are “not nearly as effective as the other effects in the film; they all look like creatures created for the sole purpose of providing the film with menace.” Morgenstern believes that the monsters do too much in the film and they take away from the actual movie. Ebert believes that they don’t do enough and are only there to cause trouble. I Am Legend is a heart-warming film that really brings up questions like whether or not humanity can survive a catastrophic event like this. Actors in the film do a phenomenal job on creating suspense and showing the softer side of humans as well as the more sinister side. Morgenstern and Ebert both have different views on some aspects of the film but sometimes use the same techniques to get their point through. While looking through the other reviews of I Am Legend most critics are one-sided, either liking it or not, but most give it an overall fair rating.

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Works Cited Morgenstern, Joe. "Smith Shines, but Script Falters in 'I Am Legend.'" The Wall Street Journal. N.p., 14 Dec. 2007. Web. 16 Oct. 2013. Ebert, Robert. "I Am Legend." Robert Ebert Reviews. N.p., 13 Dec. 2007. Web. 16 Oct. 2013.

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