Since I have a little time on my hands and no one else has posted about this yet, I figured i'd go ahead and give it a go.

I can actually go into some detail about the plot on this, because it isn't really deep and there isn't much to give away - in fact, most of the plot is told in the first five minutes. In 2009, Dr. Alice Krippin genetically alters the virus responsible for the Measles into a cure for cancer. 10,009 people are given the cure, and 10,009 people are cured. Unfortunately, they didn't wait to see the results of the animal and initial human trials - the cure (Known as K.V. or Krippin Virus) wound up killing roughly 9,000 of the initial 10,009 batch, and mutated most of the survivors into rabid, zombie-like creatures, with a few vampiric properties. The trials took place on an island in New York City - the military seals off the island in an attempt to contain the virus, but it's too little, too late - the virus is normally transmitted through contact, but quickly becomes airborne. Despite all efforts, the virus is too powerful, and it has a 90% mortality rate - 5.4 billion people die outright. Less than 1 percent are immune, totalling 12 million people, a group that we'll refer too as the 'unlucky ones'. The other 588 million survivors became mutant zombie vampires.

3 years later, 2012, Lt. Colnel Robert Neville, who was involved with K.V.'s creation, proved to be totally immune and now stays in New York City, where it all started, desperatly trying to discover a cure for Krippin Virus and restore humanity. His only companions are some manequins and his German Shepherd, Sam. The city is otherwise empty, but for a few thousand mutant zombie vampires that come out at night.

Yeah, the plot isn't great, but that's what the book was, and the movie proves to be a fairly faithful adaptation (The book was set in the 50's in Los Angeles, but it works better in New York. It was also 'modernized', rather than using some of the tacky 50's story telling; despite this, it remains true to the main plot elements of the novel).

Will Smith was the best choice for the role. Say what you will about other actor's, when you're the only real person on screen, it takes some serious talent to keep the audience and make the world believable. Maybe 5 other actors on the planet could've pulled it off and made it good. His acting was truely brilliant; I actually wanted to cry for him several times throughout the film, and several people actually did cry each time I saw it (i've seen it twice now). He also made us laugh several times, though I will complain that there was one moment where I wasn't sure whether the intent was for us to laugh or to cry (either way, he was in some major emotional strife at the time).

The CGI was excellent, which is good, seeing as how it was prevalent throughout the film. Even though it was almost always obviously CGI, that doesn't mean it isn't good; it was in fact very high quality. It also helped that Will Smith did an excellent job of working with the effects artists and made it a bit more believable. Some of the effects were good enough to fool most people (i'm mostly thinking of the lab rats here - they were great examples).

As to the other production values, I was not dissapointed. In the opening scene where Will Smith was driving the Shelby GT500 (And Ford payed a lot of money to have their cars used in this film; they had an Escape compact SUV, an Expedition full-size SUV, and the aforementioned Shelby GT500), you could actually hear the supercharger whine, which kind of shows the quality of work they put in this project - that whine would likely have been cut out and replaced in post-processing with deeper exhaust note. I've actually heard that car in real life and in the movie it sounds almost like it does in real life. The music was also good addition, for the most part very subtle but it helped define the mood. The sound effects of the MZV's were good, but high-pitched enough that at theater volume it could produce a severe migraine if they used it too much - and fortunately, they didn't. The explosion and gunshot sounds were also great, I thought.

My biggest complaint was the camera work. For the most, excellent angles, but some of the times when the camera was moving it was rather jerky for my tastes - that's something i've been touchy about ever since Mission Impossible 3 destroyed my corneas, my retina's (retinae?), and my tear ducts.

Really, this is indeed one of the year's better movies. It was pretty depressing the first time through, but actually I enjoyed it WAY better the second time through. You HAVE to see this movie twice in order to really enjoy it; reason being there are a few parts that are so depressing they could alter your perception of the film, but you're much better prepared the second time through. Overall great, but not truely excellent, i'd have to give 7.7 out of 10.0 and say it's definitely worth seeing in the theater - but just hold off on the second seeing until it hits DVD.