OVERLAY REPORT

Based on my knowledge and the search results, I can provide a detailed analysis of audience perception in I Am Legend (2007): ## Character Audience Roots For: Robert Neville (Will Smith) In I Am Legend (2007), audiences root for Dr. Robert Neville primarily due to several key factors: **Sympathetic circumstances and actions:** - Neville is haunted by memories of his wife and daughter who died in a helicopter accident during the chaotic evacuation of Manhattan, adding layers to his character and deepening the audience's understanding of his pain and determination - His only companion is his German Shepherd, Sam, who provides him with emotional support in this solitary world - Neville's daily routine includes experimenting on infected rats to find a cure for the virus, searching for food and supplies, and broadcasting continuous radio messages instructing survivors to meet him, offering food, shelter, and security - To cope with his loneliness, he regularly "talks" to mannequins he positions at video stores and interacts with them to combat his crippling loneliness **Heroic sacrifice in theatrical ending:** - The theatrical ending has Neville sacrifice himself to save the newly discovered survivors Anna and Ethan - Neville grabs a hand grenade and sacrifices himself in a blaze of glory to protect Anna, Ethan, and the cure he worked tirelessly on for the last three years ## Character Audience Roots Against: The Darkseekers Audiences were designed to root against the Darkseekers due to: **Monstrous presentation:** - The virus transformed infected survivors into albino vampiric mutants known as Darkseekers, who roam at night to hunt for immune humans - The main complaint being the awful CG "Dark Seekers" who admittedly still look terrible - Having vampires who were capable of speaking would have detracted from the emotions the movie was trying to instill - unease and fear for Robert Neville's survival. The Darkseekers are a much more fitting take given the direction that the movie took, so it makes sense that they can't talk and therefore can't be reasoned with ## The Controversial Alternate Ending However, the film's alternate ending completely reverses these perceptions, which caused significant audience backlash: **Darkseekers as sympathetic:** - In the alternate ending, Robert Neville learns that the infected are self-aware, possess a degree of intelligence, and have feelings. The revelation that shocks Neville is that the infected are terrified of him - The Alpha Female hisses in delight upon seeing the Alpha Male, who tenderly presses their foreheads together. Neville is shocked that they feel love. Neville drops to the floor and looks at the wall of pictures he has of the Dark Seekers he's killed over the years, realizing that they have all been capable of thinking and feeling **Neville as the villain:** - The revelation that shocks Neville to his core is that the infected are terrified of him. The violence shown by the infected towards Robert is, from their perspective, out of necessity. He seemingly realizes that he has become a monster to the Darkseekers too - Robert is the one who has been traumatizing them, kidnapping the Darkseeker's mate. They are not mindless zombies; they live in groups and have families. Robert is the Urban Legend that has been their boogeyman. This ending explains the name I Am Legend ## Why Test Audiences Rejected the Alternate Ending Director Francis Lawrence revealed that test audiences had intensely negative reactions to an ending that paints Robert Neville as the villain. The test audiences hated it and it got "wildly rejected, wildly rejected". It's controversial because it made test audiences uncomfortable. God forbid we should have a morally ambiguous film in which the supposed hero is actually as much a monster as the creatures he's hunting. Audiences wanted an ending that painted Neville as a genuine hero, not a morally ambiguous scientist, so they did last-minute reshoots for a more conventional and flashy Hollywood ending. The fundamental issue was that the alternate ending challenged the traditional hero narrative that audiences expected, revealing that their sympathetic protagonist had actually been conducting horrific experiments on sentient beings who were capable of love and forming relationships.