I love Will Smith in so many ways. He could be our Cary Grant. He manages his career pretty well, but still, Hollywood doesn't quite know how to use a funny handsome black man. Sad.

He has loads of talent, but he seems to think he always has to be funny, whether the movie calls for it or not. At least in this trailer, it looks like he's toned down the comedic impulse a lot, which is good for such a grim story.

You think I, Robot was Will's fault? I think the script had plenty of problems that Will did his best with (it's hard to NOT sound like an ass when you've got lines like "Vintage Converse! Circa 2004!"

That said, yes, I Am Legend looks fantastic.

Not entirely his fault, but Smith was an executive producer on I, Robot, so I'm thinking he probably could have had some of the ridiculous dialogue cut if he'd wanted to.

I don't think that you can blame Smith for I Robot, that movie would have stunk with anyone in the lead. I'm still annoyed that they cast Bridget Moynahan in the Susan Calvin role. I'm cautiously optimistic about I am Legend. At least I'm glad that they used the novel's name and I noticed in B&N that they have republished it with Will Smith's face on the cover instead of publishing some crappy novelization of the script. That gives me some hope that they didn't mangle Matheson's story too badly.

I still like the 1964 version with Vincent Price, The Last Man on Earth. Sure, it's not all that scary, but it has a nice creepy atmosphere and a certain feeling of pervasive dread about it, much like Carnival of Souls, another very effective low-budget 60s horror flick.

Octothorpe: Eh, they did the same thing with I, Robot. I've got a copy sitting around I bought in an airport somewhere with Will looking INTENSE.

I think Will Smith is a Romantic Comedy leading man, but he just doesn't get those strong scripts. (Hugh Grant) He can do action, but that's because he is so physical. I'd love to see him do something like Bringing Up Baby. I love his work in the MIB films. Love love love Will Smith. Did I say I love Will Smith? Ok. Good. I'm out.

I'm with you, rainbaby. And "Summertime" is forever on my playlist.

There's no way that this version could be as gloriously cheesy as the Charlton Heston version in the seventies.

Oh! Yeah eej! See, he can sing, too! Put him in the next Chicago or whatever musical movie.

Here's a better clip full of Heston over-acting.

I wish they'd held back on the trailers though. I loved the suspense the first trailers built by not showing the vampire dudes at all, and now the newer trailers seem to be absolutely saturated with shots of the vampires. Kinda ruins it for me.

I'd love to see a movie without having seen a single trailer for it.

I see one big problem from that trailer, the rows of corn. If the vampires retain any intelligence, they would never allow his crops to survive. If they are simple bloodthirsty animals, then it's just another zombie movie. Then again, Matheson's original story had some fairly glaring problems as well.

Also, young Smith is a big enough star now to be accountable for his bad movies.

CF: Avoiding trailers is not all that difficult.

I agree with octothorpe, The Omega Man was gloriously cheesy. In a good way, Heston just bites into the scenery and chews for all he is worth. Plus you have Teaspoon from The Young Riders as the leader of the plague victims.

mischief: But wouldn't that kind of go against what the vampires were thinking in Matheson's work? Sort of the whole point of title? I'm not saying it's not a plot hole and I don't know how well the movie's going to convey the meaning behind the work's title, but vestiges of a lone human surviving who is out killing their kind, even a "oh hell, no, the human bogeyman's cornfield!" help build the legend? Besides, I don't know if getting rid of his corn would've been a guaranteed kill enough to satisfy. The vampires needed to actually capture him and show him. It would've been like a parent looking in a scared kid's closet or under the bed going "look, no monsters." That's what I always loved about I Am Legend. You read the title going "huh, ok," then you get to the end of the book and sort of go "Ooooohh, I see what you did there..." I don't know, it's still all kinds of awesome and clever and puts a chill down my spine when I read the last part of the book.

The thought of this movie makes me cry and throw up in my mouth a little. Then I have to swallow it and cry some more. I found out about this a few months ago when I was looking for a copy of I am Legend for a friend and saw that the new cover of the book has Will Smith on it.

The Last Man on Earth as Atom Eyes mentions, is actually a good version of the book. Matheson actually worked on the script and then removed his name when he felt they screwed up the end, and the did screw up the end. I've still never seen Omega Man because I'd rather see my own fingers be chopped off than watch Charlton Heston.

Anyway, yeah. No to this movie for me.

The point would not be to starve him to death, just make his life more difficult. Besides, if the vamps keep their intelligence, many would be the same assholes they were in real life who would destroy anything he did just for the hell of it.

Just to back fill a bit, in the 70s I was a big fan of Matheson, and in many ways, I found "I am Legend" to be one of his weaker stories, much in the way that I find "Smoke on the Water" to be one of Deep Purple's weaker songs. The concepts were great, many parts are excellent, but somewhere the whole falls short of the parts.

I suppose, but again, personal pref. For me, that just wouldn't jive with the impression I got of the vampires interaction with the character. In the novel, it didn't seem so much that they were brutish animals who had lost all humanity, but just humans with human intelligence and the added "benefit" of animal-like behavior. And really, the large majority of my enjoyment of this work really comes from the synchronicity of the title and the books ending. It's sort of a weird stoner-like, "whooooaaa duuuude...no seriously....like man, if the whooooole world was vampires and there was just one dude left? Like...he'd be the vampires of vampires you know? They'd tell their little vampire kids about how 'oh shit, if you don't behave, the human man is coming to get you!'...whoooooooooooaaaaaaa..."
Call me easy to amuse, but meh I like it weak story or no and the burning down his corn thing seems like a minor tiff when compared to the fact that they changed the setting from a suburb to the city which changes the tone a lot and a lot of the tension from the original story.

hmm, ok, I see where you're coming from. I never was into that metaphorical allegory thing. This of course drove my professors nuts when I was a German Lit major. "Man, do you jack off to Werther or what?!"

I enjoyed I, Robot. But that's mostly because it allows me to say the word "robot" in my peculiar and perverse way, the second syllable clipped and the vowel more a "u" than an "o," sort of like: robut. I claim that this is how Carl Sagan said it, and when people call me on that lie, I tell them it's how Asimov said it, too. Then when they, predictably, say "No it isn't," I tell them it's how Asimov would want it said, were he alive today. There's just no winning with me.

Will Smith is the coolest and though he's been involved in some projects I haven't thought much of, I still like him. But "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" is my favorite TV program ever, so I guess I'm biased.

It's one of the best tv theme songs ever, that's for sure.

If you were from New England, you would pronoune it: "I rubbit."

I love the $7 gas on the sign in the trailer. Probably won't be as funny by the time the movie comes out.