Hero Realm!

Hancock Blu-Ray review

By Ed Worrell

SPOILERS ahead.....you were warned.

Did you ever go out on a date, and at first everything's going great, you're making eye contact, laughing, talking, connecting.... and at the end of the date you go for the kiss, and all of a sudden, you're shut down? That's kind of what Hancock is like. The first hour of the movie is great. However, as we reach the end of the film everything just sort of.... well, it falls apart.

Hancock is basically a movie that's about a super hero that's not super. He's super strong, super fast, can fly, and invincible. He's also drunk and irreverent, has little to no sense of propriety, and is hated for the way he stops the bad guys istead of being adored for having actually stopped them. However, he does apparently have an inner voice that compels him to continue fighting crime, regardless of how much he is reviled by the public.

On Blu-Ray, Sony gives us 2 versions of the film, the theatrical version and the unrated version, which runs about 10 minutes longer. The additions to the film don't add to the overall story, except that one of them fixes a glaring editing error that was somehow missed on the theatrical release. When Mary (Charlize Theron) goes to visit Hancock's trailer in the theatrical version, she flies there, and then drives away in her car that miraculously appeared while she was inside. In the unrated version, they have her driving there and driving away, which makes a little more sense, I thought.
The largest addition to the film comes at the beginning of the movie just after the car chase sequence (which I enjoyed by the way). Hancock meets a girl at the bar and they end up going back to his place and having sex. Most of you know what happens at the end of sex, and when it happens to Hancock, it leaves a few holes in the roof of his trailer. Sufficiently freaked out, the girl sneaks out the bathroom window while Hancock is still talking to her, saying sorry and offering to fly her home. The result is I was feeling kind of sorry for him, but not as much as I was grossed out by what just happened. Glad they left this out of the theater.

I'm not going to detail the entire film, but I feel it's important to let you know where it succeeds and where it fails.
Where it works: We get some great interaction between Hancock and Ray (Jason Bateman), a public relations guy who comes up with a pretty decent plan for rehabilitating Hancock's image. The scene where Hancock meets the neighborhood bully who's been terrorizing Ray's son is hilarious, and it actually makes you feel as though Hancock cares for someone other than himself for the first time. The scene in the prison just after Hancock arrives.....you just have to see that for yourselves .
After we find out who Mary (Theron) really is, there's some tension between her and Hancock, which is actually really funny. Also, when Hancock is in the hospital and Mary comes to visit him and explain to him who he is, and who she is to him was a great sequence.

Where it doesn't: Some time after the aforementioned scene where Mary and Hancock meet at his trailer, there's a fight between the two, and there are unexplained tornadoes, snow, and other weirdness that never happens in L.A. Sorry, but I just didn't get it. I could have looked this over though if things didn't get worse.

Where things really falls off the rails is when the dimwit one-handed bank robber that Hancock put away earlier in the film somehow manages to escape from a maximum security prison and single handedly , he nearly ends up killing Hancock and his estranged wife (Theron), who we find out are both gods and have lived for over 3000 years. This just seemed like a really poorly conceived plot thread to me. I mean, couldn't they have come up with a better villain? I know its a super hero movie and you need a bad guy but come on. Maybe in the sequel.....

The only special feature of note is the picture in picture commentary by Peter Berg who directed the film. I really liked the director, and I'm sure he did the best with the script that he was handed. Through watching the commentary, you'll find out that he's a little off his rocker (in a good way), and it's entertaining to watch.

After everything is said and done, the film works on many levels, and it will get a few spins in my PS3. Overall though, I can say that I know that many will be irritated enough by the ending that they won't like it. However, apart from the idiotic ending, I still say this is a slightly better than average film and a lot of fun in many ways.

My rating: 3 meatballs out of 5