STUDIO: Sony
RELEASE DATE: November 25, 2008
STARRING: Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman, and Eddie Marsan
WRITTEN BY: Vince Gilligan & Vincent Ngo
DIRECTED BY: Peter Berg
FEATURES: Theatrical And Unrated Version Of The Film
Unrated Version Includes Footage Not Seen In Theaters
7 Featurettes
Blu-ray Exclusive: On-Set Visual Diary Bonus View Picture-in-Picture Track

Some movies are so unusual and so out there that they require second viewing. After my two-star appraisal of Hancock in theaters, I was told by several trustworthy people that it was an experience that worked better in repeats. So, I sat through the entirety of the unrated version (ten minutes longer) of Hancock and...my opinion is exactly the same. Okay, maybe not exactly. I was more impressed with the special effects this time and the general craftsmanship of the project (I still like Peter Berg as a visual director) but, man, the script is an absolute mess. Vince Gilligan and Vincent Ngo have done excellent TV work in the past and I can see what they were going for with Hancock but they lost their way. It's the kind of project that I think these two talented writers got so deeply involved in that they didn't step back to think about how it would work to a new audience. Sometimes writers get so enchanted with their own character's back stories that they lose the actual story itself. Hancock builds to what should be an emotional, gut-wrenching action climax and it is shockingly ineffective. Both times I saw it.

There's ambition in there in Hancock but it simply does not come together despite the prodigious abilities of Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman, and Peter Berg. The film was a massive success, so it clearly has some serious fans (you don't get to over $600 million worldwide without some repeat viewing) who will want to pick up the title on Blu-Ray. The BD release of one of the biggest movies of the year should naturally be one of the most in-depth and well-made of the year, right? Well, just as I was disappointed by the film itself, the BD for Hancock will probably be a bit of a letdown to the film's legion of fans.

Hancock worked its way through the Hollywood machine for years. Under its original title, "Tonight, He Comes", the film made lists of "great unproduced screenplays" repeatedly. It very nearly went before the cameras with Michael Mann directing (and the great filmmaker actually cameos in Hancock). The problem with a lot of screenplay that roll around tinseltown for years? They gather moss. The general concept of Hancock is still original and near-brilliant, but it's been tinkered with and altered so many times, that it can only be appreciated for its ambition, not for what actually made it to the big screen. It starts promisingly but takes a left turn about halfway through and literally falls apart before your eyes. It's like watching a plane crash. It does make you wonder what Hancock or "Tonight, He Comes" might have been in an alternate universe.

The general set-up is that of a superhero, Hancock (Will Smith), with an image crisis. He's a drunk who never takes collateral damage into account when he's reluctantly trying to save the day. Hancock saves the life of Ray (Jason Bateman), the nicest publicist in the world and he offers to help the hero reform his bad boy image. After an arrest warrant is actually put out for Hancock's arrest, his publicity agent decides that step one in his new image is to do some hard time. Of course, crime goes up and we realize that we all need Hancock, bottle of booze in hand or not. The first act of Hancock works. Smith is his typically charming self and there may be no one in movies that I root for more than Jason Bateman. The people who will tell you they like Hancock like the first act, maybe even the first two, but...

Where the typical superhero movie would develop a villain or a romance, Hancock goes completely off the rails. It shoots for the stars and becomes a completely different movie. Or does it? I have a feeling that the more serious in tone second half is closer to the entirety of "Tonight, He Comes" and that Will Smith and Peter Berg played up the lightness of the first act. And even judged as an action movie, it's merely average. Berg was not the right fit for this material, shooting most of it in extreme close-up with handheld cameras. People who like Hancock like the idea but the execution misses the mark.

The same criticism could be applied to the Blu-Ray disc. The video transfer is shockingly dark, as if the light levels have been mixed too low. The audio is excellent, but the video is as disappointing as the film. And how does a movie make this much money and not have anyone interested enough in watching again to do a commentary track? As for the unrated material, it's advertised as 10 minutes, but it's almost entirely one scene, an early sex scene with Hancock that fails even more than the footage that made the theatrical cut. The other changes are incredibly minor. There are some informative featurettes and a BD-exclusive feature but the presentation feels brief (no commentary, no deleted scenes) for such a massively successful film with such a long production history. Don't be surprised if you get double dipped. Well, that's assuming you get dipped at all by one of the most disappointing films of 2008.