Hancock

I'm never sure if anyone reads my blogs, nor if they really care, but occasionally I feel the need to say something about...something, and here we are.

Before seeing the movie Hancock, I had seen some headlines about "critics and audiences torn over plot twist." So going into the movie I was a bit wary. As it turns out (from my post movie-going reading) the twist was blown entirely out of proportion. We KNOW, from the close-ups and the acting that these two have history. When we find out what it is, it comes as a surprise (yes, Hollywood, PLEASE surprise us! instead of recycling old TV shows) but one that fits the world the film has set up.

One of the cool things about the ending was, it sets up several possibilities. (Yeah yeah, spolier alert.) Either superhero could die, sacrificing him/herself for the other. Or both die, and the husband realizes that the world may not have superheroes, and "normal" people have to act. (In fact, he does this by helping Hancock when swinging the sharp instrument.)

I do have two minor criticisms of the film. One, some of the special effects look a little cheesy. Okay, enough about that. Two (and this is coming from years of teaching screenwriting) it seemed that some things were missing. WHY was this film only 92 minutes long? An additional 10 minutes (at least) would have allowed time for us to see more into the husband's psyche. He is madly in love with this woman, who is--for all intents and purposes, as they say--the mother of his child. Not only is she suddenly a superhero herself, but is essentially married to another man, the man he has been helping. He arrives at the hospital, and sees his wife with her "lover." But we have no time to examine his emotional response to this discovery--we move right into the violent confrontation, and he's behind a product-placed soda machine. Unfortunately, this does not allow for any tension. Should he help Hancock, or let the badguy kill him? No, there is no hesitation, he just does it. Perhaps the filmmakers were in as much hurry to get to the end as the theatregoers were to leave at the end (and miss that PS from NYC).