Rating:

Have you ever sat down to watch a movie and had it take you by surprise?  I did last Friday when I sat down to watch the unedited version of Hancock starring Will Smith. I loved the movie so much for the secondary story that I almost forgot that it was a “capes” film.

The acting was amazing and I even cried a little at the end of the movie.  Now mind you, this is a capes film and even without a big battle at the end to wrap things up in a tidy bow, I was a happy geek girl.   The movie is a must have for all Will Smith fans and is sure to be a fave for many years to come.  Let’s take a look at shall we?

The movie was released on July 2, 2008 and as most of Big Will’s movies—they are instantly the number one movie for that week.  The  single greatest thing is that the movie was and—or is—the first to use an anti-hero as the main character.

This is a man we love to hate and hate to love.  The rude behavior of this man is on par with Oscar from the Odd Couple.  I was laughing so hard when the smart mouth kid got his due from Hancock, that I realized that it should not have been funny, but it was.

The whole concept of redeeming a flawed character was so much of the story  that the main storyline almost slipped under my radar until the end.  The reveal about Charlize Theron’ s character was a bit of a shock.  When the story flipped, I was like WHAT? Ok. So where in the world did that come from and how are they going to work that into the film?

The movie has a simple plot. A drunk superhero by the name of Hancock is saving the world from evil, but not really doing it in a way that endears him to the people.  He hates himself and is all alone in the world.

One day, he has a life changing event that makes him want to be a real hero. That’s when the movie changes into something special.  The fact that he can be a good man is new to Hancock. The idea that all a person needs to do in order feel good about oneself is have a few people have faith in them, is a new idea to him. For Hancock, this was the push that he needed in order to be a better person.

The supporting cast for this film is just as good as Will Smith when it comes to acting chops. Charlize Theron plays Mary Embrey, a women who at first seems like a regular housewife and mother. In the end, she turns out to be a major part of Hancock’s life.

Jason Bateman, who I have loved for years, is back in the limelight as a actor.  Bateman is still on a high from starring in Juno last year and is in a prime position to get even bigger roles in the future.  What I like best about Bateman is that he can do both funny and serious at the same time. He does that perfectly in this film.

The build up for the second half of the movie is slow and it sneaks up on you. Because of this, we don’t get many details on who—or what—Hancock is. I was left wanting to know more about the back story and why all of the super-powered people were not in the current world.

I mean, come on, with a more developed background and a few more details fleshed out – this movie would have been great.  In fact I would have liked  to have seen a prequel to give me some background on what I was being told watch for in the movie.

The idea of a superhuman race of people is barely hinted at. It’s not quite enough info for me to buy into the plot.  The whole “love” story would have made more sense if I had a reference point to go from.

The colors and CGI for the film were right on and filled the screen with the correct amount of drama to hold my attention.  I did watch the extra features and I wanted more on how they filmed certain scenes.  The most important parts of the extras was a extended version of how to shoot the actors skin from several points of light to enhance the CGI. This was fun to watch, but give me more info on the technical tricks.  I needed more—pure and simple—to really be happy with this film and I did not get that.

So here is my last point: great acting, good story, not so good background (needed more to go on) and bad extras.  I will watch this movie again, but I wish that the un-edited cut had a little more to offer me as a movie watcher.

This could have been an great DVD, but it lacks something that I just can’t name.  Again, let me be clear I loved the movie. But once I sat down to review this version, I was left wondering what could have made this movie even better.