We caught I Am Legend yesterday morning and thoroughly enjoyed it. I am always game for anything that shows New York getting destroyed (Armageddon and The Day After Tomorrow are both favorites in this category). I Am Legend goes one better than those movies. In this case the city is still standing, but everyone is dead except for Will Smith and some killer zombie-types.
The setup here is that a cure for cancer ends up and causes a worldwide epidemic that wipes out practically everyone. Most of the people just died, a slim one percent had immunity and survived and a few others had rabies-like symptoms that turned them into killers. Will Smith’s character was a military guy who was trying to find the cure, and is still trying three years after the devastation.
Smith is good, surprisingly good, in this movie as the last man standing in Manhattan with only his dog for company. He carries the vast majority of this movie with no other humans to interact with and it’s really good. The film is tense, with still some funny and touching moments in it. Not exactly holiday cheer, but a solid time at the movies.
And, guess what’s in Times Square? Yes, the Lestat marquee has surfaced again. Interestingly though, it’s next to the Legally Blonde marquee, which replaced Lestat at the Palace theatre. Perhaps someone messed up some digital touch ups (if you click on the picture above to see the large version, you can see these marquees on the right side of the shot). Also, a very cool note in the midst of the empty Times Square is that the movie used the new TKTS booth that is supposed to open next year (the movie’s plague takes place at Christmastime 2009). The booth is currently under construction, but the movie had it all assembled. The movie shot here for several weeks and then did a lot of digital work to make New York a great character in the movie.
Two great trailers we saw as well: The Dark Knight with Christian Bale back as Batman and Heath Ledger as Joker. This looks great! We also saw the second in the Chronicles of Narnia series, Prince Caspian. Both are headed into theatres next summer.
