Well, the trailer for I Am Legend, starring Will Smith, has dropped. Releasing from Warner Bros. in December, the third filmed version of the well known Richard Matheson novella (and the first
to actually use its title) has, of course, gone through all sorts of casting changes and production starts and stops over the years, with actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger and directors like Ridley Scott and James Cameron attached to it at various points. Teaming with Smith — who has a penchant for milking the full commercial value out of apocalyptic scenarios — is director Francis Lawrence, who did some good things with the vaguely thematically similar Constantine, starring Keanu Reeves.

The first portion of the trailer is generic end-of-days mayhem, with surging, panicked crowds, explosions and the like. Yawn… It kind of looked like outtakes from War of the Worlds, honestly. The second half, though, hinted at something darker, or at least a bit more interesting. Naturally, Smith’s character is not alone, and some kick-ass action stuff will ensue. But the scope of the “desperate desolation” stuff — including an aerial city shot and Smith knocking golf balls off a skyscraper’s roof, somehow trumping Tom Cruise flailing about in an empty Times Square in Vanilla Sky — was impressive, and made me recall how much I loved reading Stephen King’s The Stand as a kid. Sure, this isn’t going to be Cast Away or anything, but it did make me think how sort of primal a response we have to abandoned human spaces, how that sets off deep-set warning bells that can only be described as innate and animalistic.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that this movie is going to slay at the box office. Smith pushed The Pursuit of Happyness to a $26 million opening and a $163 million gross last holiday season, and this wheelhouse pairing of bankable star and concept will make I Am Legend the year’s last big action epic, guaranteeing it a theatrical run well into Oscar race season. Again, for the trailer, click here.