Movie and Book Intro's

The most crucial part of a movie or book is it's introduction. A movie or book can either become a hit or a disaster for the viewer or reader solely based on their introductions. The strength of an intro is what is supposed to hook the reader or viewer, in order to keep them interested and willing to keep reading. One example of this is in the movie I am Legend. I am Legend is about a man living in post-apocalyptic New York City named Dr. Robert Neville (Will Smith). Throughout the movie, Dr. Neville attempts to survive alone after a deadly virus wipes out nearly all of humanity, and turns almost every survivor into a flesh-eating, nocturnal, monster. The movie began with a video clip of a television interview between two reporters and a female scientist that says that she created a "miracle drug" that can cure cancer among other diseases. This is rather ironic because it leads the viewer to believe that something good may come out of this movie. Then the movie goes through an intense sequence of flashbacks where the plot unfolds. The first flashback has Dr. Neville running into his house yelling to his wife and daughter to pack their bags and come with him, because a deadly virus had just been released upon the city of New York. The next few scenes show Dr. Neville and his family attempting to maneuver through a panicking city full of people bleeding to death from a virus that had evolved from the "miracle drug" that had been mentioned in the interview. Then as Dr. Neville and his family reach the area that will lead him to safety you can see a missile being shot from a helicopter, and blowing up the G.W. Bridge so no infected people can get out of the city. This intensity surrounding the main characters in these intro scenes really helps build up later events and hook the viewer. These events definitely kept me excited throughout the intro and made me want to watch the rest of the movie. The book Macbeth definitely had a very interesting introduction; not quite as exciting as the beginning of I am Legend, but still it was very interesting and it kept me wanting to read more. Normally, I'm not really a fan of Shakespeare's plays but I get the feeling that this one will definitely keep my attention. After reading the first four scenes I can definitely expect certain things to continue to occur during the play. For one thing, I'm sure that Macbeth will take the thrown of his country even though it does mean murder, and two, the three "weird sisters" or witches will definitely play a large role as the play progresses. This leads me to believe that two recurring themes will be; death, and killing will play a large role in the events that will unfold, and the witches will have more of an influence as the story progresses, and in my opinion I feel that aside from Macbeth himself, these "weird sisters" will turn out to be the most important characters in Macbeth. This may actually turn out to be a very good play, and I hope it does too, so that way if I have to read something in class at 8 a.m., at least it will be something good.