Hancock Movie Review

The first review for this blog based on a movie! And i'm glad to be bringing it to you. However let start off by saying why reviews here will be different than most reviews you see on the Internet Almost all “professional” (quoted for a reason) reviews are made by people that don't even watch the movie. I get passes to pre screenings to movies where the first two rows are sectioned off for these people and guess what? They are always empty, so I ask the people running the event who it was supposed to be and its local newspapers to website people that were SUPPOSED to be sitting there. Not only that but these people seem to get “paid off” and I say this because i've been inside the reviewing industry before and some companies will give you some perks, if a certain movies don't give you a pre-screening or some type of gift they automatically get a bad review from certain reviewers. Now i'm not saying ALL people are like this but trust me you CANNOT say it doesn't happen. However I mention this because I want to promise you I will not be like those people, all reviews I post are my opinion and my opinion alone. I will critique a movie and you may or may not agree but just remember i'm being truthful. I also like to make movies so I know to look for certain aspects and how things should be better.
However now you may be asking yourself why i'm bringing this up right now before a review? The reason being is because Hancock is the perfect example. Yahoo even reported it earlier this morning with the exact title of “Users are giving good reviews while critics are mixed.” I read both and from the critics we had quotes similar to “The biggest train wreck in movie history, in a bad way” from the critics but users had quotes like “Amazing and unique superhero flick.” Well i'm not here to say “Superhero bandwagon” or to say “it was the greatest film ever made” i'm here to tell my opinion and here goes.
Hancock....what happens when you pair up a problematic society killing superhero drunk with Will Smith. Superheroes usually have some kind of code of conduct and are usually saving the world properly but Hancock has none of this. Being drunk all the time and doesn't care how he gets the job done causing many problems with society. Until, of course, meeting a PR man that is needed to do something with his failing life as well. Hancock is about showing people that not all superheroes are perfect and in the end are really trying to be their best.
What starts out as a very funny superhero flick turns into something more serious half way through. However while most people are saying this was a major mistake I thought of it as awesome. During the first half of the movie your witnessing several incidents and watching society around Hancock is changing and a lot of problems arising etc... However being funny was covering all this up and half way though it hits you, the fact that the first half was indeed serious the whole time and we got a problem here. However this movie throws your right into a emotional train at this part, at first your laughing, then your in your action mode and from there you may cry or even be on the edge of your seat with all the intense scenes happening finally ending up in a mood that makes you want to cheer for Hancock at one point. While sitting in a theater seating 400 people you can actually here people cheering Hancock on. I have honestly not seen a movie that had me go through so many emotions inside in a while. So the story in the end was amazing and the scriptwriting was tremendous, very funny remarks that will keep you laughing long after the scene is over.
Not only did it follow Hancock well but the story was built to put you in the shows of the city. You watch as the society around the hero changes and you can see how its really effecting the world. Everything from talking about how much it takes to clean up a city after a superhero fight to how a superhero has a effect on people themselves. Not only that but the camera shots were amazing, making it seem like your stepping in and watching this secretly, camera was never really still and had a feel like it was a person actually watching this happen.
To every movie there is a downside and this movie had one major one. I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon of Hancock trying to be serious, because it is, but its the CGI and special effects in this movie. A lot of it seemed out of place, really fake, and was not smooth at all. Without ruining it you see one in the commercials where Hancock flies through a sign. Instead of maybe breaking the middle and having it fall into the street the sign for some odd reason decides to completely explode with fake looking texture pieces flying at the screen. If he is flying through it wouldn't the pieces fly the same direction at least? Not only this but shots like this didn't have the shatter hit the ground at all. The thing is that this only lasted through the first half of the movie, the part that “real critics” loved. The thing is you reach that half way point and it completely changes everything, at this point the CGI is perfect and isn't overly dramatic, the effects look real, and it has one of the most awesome scenes in the movie done perfectly. You had buildings falling apart, tornadoes, all of it and yet it looked ten times better than the first half of the movie where all they had to do was make a sign break.
Overall I give the movie an 8/10 because its worth seeing in theaters by far but its not the greatest movie in the world. The last scene in the movie had me on the edge of my seat in anticipation on whats going to happen, had people cheering for Hancock, and even had some people in almost tears. This scene is just an example of how well played out the second half of the movie was, so don't let those other “critics” say it sucked because it got serious. Its will smith not Will Ferrel so i'm sorry to tell you all expecting a dumb humor, superhero movie, your getting a real movie.
Final words, fix the CG effects and you got yourself one hell of a movie. 8/10

~SoldierOne