That was pretty much the high point. As the release date grew closer and closer, the bad vibes started to rise within me. The news of re-shoots were akin to huge warning bells ringing in my head.

Well, I’m happy to report it’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be.

However, it’s not great either. It’s just slightly better than my pessimistic mind was anticipating.

Hancock is about a lone superhero (also a drunkard bum) who does nothing but destroy millions of dollars worth of property while trying to fight crime. An early attempt to stifle a car chase results in $9 million in damages, a personal record for John Hancock.

Yes, John Hancock is his name, of which the origins you find out later in the movie.

Jason Bateman is a Public Relations guy trying to make his mark in the world. That becomes ironic later on, but I digress. He sees Hancock as a hopeless man, thought of by the rest of the world as an A-Hole.

From there, the movie progresses. I wont go into too much detail, because there is a big twisty-turny-thing in the middle and while I smelled it and saw it coming from a mile away, some of you may not.

The problem with the movie was that it wasn’t a comedy like I had hoped for. There were some funny parts, but I honestly only laughed a few times. It was partially intended to be a drama as well, because of Hancock’s self-loathing which stems from some long lost origin.

(let me say this though – there was a line during a dinner table scene which I thought was one of the funniest I’ve heard all year. I’ll let you find it.)

And even if it wasn’t a comedy, the dramatic part didn’t feel right. The story was actually very cool. When you get some questions answered about just WHO Hancock is, the explanation and idea is pretty awesome. I really dug it.

But the execution and delivery felt rushed and cheap. The special effects were really unspectacular.

I wanted to like this film, and I did actually ENJOY myself a bit, yet just felt something was missing. It reminded me of Jumper earlier this year. A noble effort with a pretty awesome story, but poorly done.

Mike’s Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Lincoln actually won’t be Spielberg’s next film, however. That honor goes to Spielberg’s part of the Tintin trilogy which he will be filming this fall. Spielberg, however, is quite good at filming back to back films (anyone remember the one-two punch of Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List in 1993?) and he’s said that he’s planning a start date for Lincoln of early next year. Spielberg has a strong script by Angels in America playwright Tony Kushner ready to go.

The director had been prepping the Aaron Sorkin scripted The Trial of the Chicago Seven, but the writer’s strike put a hold on rewrites he needed. Spielberg had already enlisted Sacha Baron Cohen and had already talked to other high profile A-list actors (reportedly including Will Smith) about starring in the drama about the trial of anti-Vietnam war protesters at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, but the rewrites put everything behind schedule. Apparently, Spielberg no longer feels he can make that project work at this time.

I’d much rather have the Lincoln project come together anyway. It sounds much more like something I’d want to see than the other film. I’m thinking that if he can get it shot early next year they can have it out just in time for Oscar season in 2009.

I’m really starting to like the idea of this film. It’s going to make a ton of money I suspect. I can’t imagine that anything Will Smith is in like this, during the summer, will amount to anything less than $150 million.

Hancock hits theaters on July 2, 2008.

Seven Pounds is from Gabriele Muccino, who was also the director of Smith’s hit drama The Pursuit of Happyness which, interestingly enough, also starred Will Smith’s son, Jayden, as his son in the film. It is being reported that Connor won’t have to work quite as hard in Seven Pounds as Jayden did in that film as he will appear mostly in photographs and will not have a speaking part.

Joining Smith and the young Cruise in the “emotional story of a man who will change the lives of seven strangers� are Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson and Barry Pepper.

The film centers on Taharqa, the last Pharaoh of the 25th or Nubian Dynasty (the one in which blacks of Ethiopian descent ran Egypt) and is supposedly full of Ethiopians battling Assyrians for the throne of Amun-Ra. He was the son of Piye, the Nubian king of Napata who had first conquered Egypt, and the younger brother and successor of Shebitku. Smith is reportedly interested in playing the role himself.

“It’s an open writing assignment from Will’s company. It’s something he’s taken a big interest in,” says Hauty.

Before anyone says anything, the actual “last Pharaoh” of Egypt was Cleopatra VII. So there.

As a word of warning, this blog contains spoilers for the end of I Am Legend the movie and book, so don’t read any further if you haven’t seen it yet.

So now, let’s examine the original finish of the movie.

You have the big zombie attack on the house, and Will Smith takes the girl and son with him to the basement, into a glass-walled room. There is also one of the zombies there that he was trying to heal. The zombies make their way to the basement, Smith sends the woman and her son out the little trap door, while Smith waits for the monsters to bust through, a live grenade in hand.

The mother and son make it out safely and continue north to a fort where other humans are alive. The end. Smith dies.

I never liked it because while he does die in the book, he does it with the help of a woman who is an evolved form of the zombie living in a society filled with her kind. Smith scares them because of what he represents: Immunity to their disease. Instead of being hung out in public she gives him a pill to end his life. He dies, the last of his kind.

He is Legend. Man is now Legend. That was the point.

Okay, no one seems like they’ll even do the ending like that, but this new alternate one that comes off the Special Edition DVD that hits stores on March 18th is a bit better for me.

Essentially it looks like the zombies are more than just zombies. They can think and feel, and the reason they come there is because Smith captured their leader’s woman. Or something like that.

Watch it for yourself and tell me what you think. Do you like it better than the original?

[youtube Fhi_wqFC0As]

This guy is the newest and latest. And yikes…I wish you could see my skin through the computer…yes, those are goosebumps.

(You can find some higher resolution versions of the trailer over on Rotten Tomatoes)

[youtube q6wR62QisEU]

Looks awesome.