Movie Review: I am Legend

I had the opportunity to see "I am Legend" last night, and unfortunately I was left with more questions than answers. It was definitely entertaining and at times stressful enough to have me pressed into the back of my seat, but it should have been split into two movies. A mini-series, perhaps.

Getting to see New York City as a natural wonderland is fascinating, as is watching a lone man survive in the forest that once was Manhattan. It's especially interesting to see how he has used all of the abandoned junk to live almost as he would have in a normal situation, and to wonder if I could be so clever as to make an entire townhouse run off of car batteries and pump gas straight out of the tanks. It would be unbelievably cool to steal a brand new Mustang and shoot stuff out of it with a semi-automatic rifle I snaked from the local armory.

Will Smith is great, but they should have gone deeper into just how crazy he was going. The german shepherd carried the movie, let's be honest. Who knew dogs can act? What they did show of Smith's decent into madness was gripping.

Now for the negatives. This should have been split to give the story decent play. The back story is shown through flashbacks, which is creative for an apocalyptic-zombie thriller, but it was darn confusing. How did the virus mutate? Why did it have the vampire/zombie effects on humans? How long did it take to build up? Were the darkseekers really devolving, or were they in fact evolving? And why exactly did they keep the "I am Legend" title when the entire point of that title was lost in this film?

At any rate, it was highly entertaining, if the ending was a bit of a deus ex machina.

They need to cast more German shepherds in movies.

It's Howdy Doody Time!

I guess some things will never change. C and I will never stop periodically checking up on each other, most likely to see what we periodically say about each other.

Speaking of misinterpretations, there is a difference between quitting and simply never trying. Despite more adversity than most people have ever even imagined, I am still finishing my degree. I don't view my desire to live in different places and try new things as a negative. I may have bounced around a lot, but I am still reaching my goal. I just don't see any reason to limit myself.

I knew before I even signed the paperwork that I would not finish OCS if I went last May. I knew it. I was not physically ready. It would have been easy for me to stay on light duty for the entire first 10 days I was there and be sent home right off the bat. I had the opportunity to just pack my trash and walk out within the first two days. But I stayed. I stayed until I was literally falling apart at the seams. I stood up to my recruiter when he asked me to take the less than honorable way out. And you know what I got for it? Out of some odd 50 candidates, I was the only one invited back to OCS. And I will go back. As soon as this is published, I'll be out the door for a three mile run. I am no runner. Out of all physical activity, running is the most difficult for me. But I want to be a Marine, so I force myself to do this. I am not going to take the easy way out, I don't want the easy way out. I may not have finished OCS (I was on crutches and not even able to drive a car I was so broken when I got back, by the way) but at least I had the intestinal fortitude to try. And after receiving a serious beating, I genuinely want to go back. I have been face to face with the uglier side of the Corps, and I still love it.

I am not going to simply accept what life hands me. Ever. Life is too short to waste. So no, I don't see a whole lot of reason to stay at one school just because it is the common thing to do. I have no desire to pursue grad school and that doesn't make me a failure or a quitter, it makes me someone who is ready to dive into the real world. There are too many glorious adventures to be had for me to stay on one road.

I may have failed OCS, but at least I tried. And I'm trying again. I am putting myself through school to finish my degree. Doing things the traditional way is boring and easy. I'm going to take the untraveled path.

It's not that I have the potential to be more than a cashier, it's that I am more than a cashier. I am not the person who will be bagging your groceries any time soon.

And I don't work at Marbella, thank you.