So, saw this last night. I wasn't expecting much, so I was plesently surprised when it turned out to be good. It wasn't anything groundbreaking or earth-shattering, but Will Smith was exceptional, particularly after his, er, less-than-inspiring performance in I, Robot.

And the CGI, or whatever, that they used to make NYC look like abandoned was positively incredible. I hope whoever did that for this movie works on Watchmen.

Also, the Trailer for The Dark Knight looked fucking AWESOME.

I'd like to check this one out myself, although I have very little faith in it. It's from my favorite book of all time and I know this one won't top previously attempts to make a movie out of the novel like "The Omega Man" with Charleton Heston or "The Last Man on Earth" with Vincent Price.

See, I wasn't sure if it was based on a book or not. I'll have to go check out the book. I love post-apocolyptic type stuff.

The book is excellent. I highly recommend it.

Yup...bumping an old thread. But 100% relevant since this flick came out on DVD, last week. Now, most of us might see it.

Saw it this afternoon at a 1.25 movie theater. I agree that the CGI for the abandoned NYC was amazing. They even had some small weeds blowing in the wind. Only one scene looked phony: when we see his hot rod, from the back, racing through the streets. The zombies, though, still looked like video game outtakes.

I thought it was a little funny that most of the advertising material left in NYC was Time-Warner stuff. Biggest example was the Superman/Batman billboard (there was also a Green Lantern poster outside the DVD store with the mannequins). Plus the TIME magazine cover on his refrigerator. But it didn't hinder the movie at all.

In another DC Comics theme, the blown bridges into Manhattan reminded me of the Batman books' "Contagion" and subsequent "No Man's Land" stories, circa 1999. When Gotham City was cut off and quarantined, complete with blown bridges. So it was like seeing a little bit of "No Man's Land" on the big screen.

I completely bought into the "me and my dog against the world" element. That's kind of how I feel in the winter around here. Have conversations with him, eat with him...all that crap. But I just knew, as soon as I saw the dog in its first scene, that it wouldn't make it out of the movie alive. Total tear-jerker when he was singing to his dog. I think Sylvester Stallone's "Daybreak" is one of the few live-action adventure movies I can think of where a dog makes it out alive.

I understand that the movie has some noticeable divergences from the original book. But it blows away "The Omega Man". In that, I was actually rooting for the vampires/zombies to kill Charlton Heston-- a prick who wanders around LA, making the entire city his own personal bachelor pad. Here, they do a good job of establishing the mood of isolation and desparation that Robert Neville was in. I really like movies that bring you into the same mindframe of the central characters. Usually tough to do in action/adventure movies, but I thought this worked well.

So I'll give it a recommendation, too.

I recently saw the original ending online, and I think it's much better than the ending they used in theaters

Just tracked it down and watched it myself. Thanks for the suggestion.

I think I agree with ya, Swiggy, yet I can see why they made the change. In the alternate ending, he doesn't really create a cure for the monsters... he just kinda' gives them back one of their own. So if the female monster was on the road to recovery, what would happen when she was back in ZombieTown as the only non-infected person? Does this mean the zombies will eventually be cured if they're just left to sit? Are they expected to create a cure on their own? Throw in the fact that the heroes then leave town, then it might seem like the heroes gave up and ran away form NYC. Lot of No-Prizing explanation going on.

In the movie version, it's established that he has a cure and it arrives safely with non-infected people. More clarity and closure in that version, if not as dramatic.

But the alternate version adds a whole different resolution. When Neville trapped his female specimen, it was apparently the love interest of the Zombie Boss. Which explains why the Boss set a similar trap for Neville the next night. The Boss also seemed to be slowly re-learning his humanity, and feeling love for a fellow zombie definitely would be a big step towards recovery. So the movie ending killed that subplot, but also gave a more precise, clear-cut ending for the audience.

Plus, immediately after the zombies leave, Neville looks up at all of his photos of past specimens. That would be a more direct tie-in to the original book's meaning of "I am Legend". He had become a legendary killer among the zombie culture, but with his show of humanity towards them, he became a real "legend". A more positive spin on the original story's ending.