I enjoyed this movie much more than I expected to. In fact, I was very much into the life of a depressed superhero until Charlize screwed it up for me.
Her character doesn’t make sense as she was portrayed. Why did she not speak up immediately? If she knew she was weakening him, why didn’t she say something before he got shot? Why did she hate Hancock? What’s with the pretending that the whole “me and Hancock are married” stuff never happened? And why the black latex friggin’ suit?
I enjoyed the first half as well, and will take a stab at what was supposed to be going on. Basically, Therize and Hancock have been lovers off and on through out history, knowing that if they stay together too long, bad things happen. I believe we are supposed to assume that they have been getting together and running away from each other for thousands of years. She doesn’t hate him, she loves him but believes, rightly, that he is safer avoiding her. He can’t stay away from her and can’t help trying to save others. Look at what he was doing in the movie. He was a terrible super hero, but he was still trying to be a hero. With his power he could have been rich and comfortable in any number of ways, but he needed to help people.
That idea had merit and could have worked, but the way it was shown wasn’t very logical.
As for the pretending they were never married thing. They are not currently legally married for the simple reason that the identities they married under would no longer be legitimate. So that leaves here legally married to Jason Bateman, who she also loves (she seems to be attracted to people trying to save the world). Since Hancock cares about both people he makes the noble move and exits himself from the scene.
This movie could have worked so much better if the writers and director had planned out the effects of the two of them being together much better. How close and for how long did it take for them to loose their powers? The were living in the same city for years, saw each other for a few hours multiple times with no ill effects, then lost their powers hours after coming briefly into physical contact but recovered when they got something like 100ft apart. They were further apart when Hancock got shot!
It would also have been better with either no villain or a better one.
Yep. It was a good premise and the first half of the movie was pretty enjoyable. Would have been better if they’d avoided both romance and plot, and just stuck to comedy.
I think that for a long time she didn’t realize he had amnesia, and wanted to see what kind of game he was playing.
Personally, I liked the movie a lot, flaws and all. It was a failure, yes, but it was an ambitious failure, and I respect that.
It’s pretty much a universal sentiment that the movie falls apart in the middle. I think even the director acknowledges that.
One guess as to why that happened could be that the studio thought they had a series on their hands, and so wanted to have a “mythology” inserted into the backstory to allow for infinite sequels and spin-offs. Personally, I think that destroyed the whole thing. What was nice about the movie is that it was as far removed from the “superhero” genre as possible. Just a guy with powers who is talked into fighting crime by a PR man. No backstory, no arch enemies, no supernatural hokum.
That movie needs a fanedit. Maybe everything after the halfway point can be reconstructed into a halfway decent film by splicing in footage from Independence Day and Seven Pounds.
I liked the mythology; but then, I’m a fantasy fan, and the part where they explain the mythology is always my favorite part of the story.
The film fell apart in the second half becase they inserted a useless and uninteresting villain out of nowhere. It was lousy plotting, not poor concept.
I’m not sure that works for me. She knew he had been injured in Miami and she left him so his powers would return and he would heal. IIRC she says something like she always knew where he was but since he had forgotten her she was hoping it was their chance to break the cycle. Over the dozens of times they’ve gotten together(always ending in heartbreak as they lose their powers and then have to separate after being attacked or him being injured doing something heroic), she’s gotten frustrated with the cycle. She left him in Miami and started a new life, finding Bateman’s character in his moment of need and desperately wants a normal life. She loves Hancock, but isn’t “in love” with him at this point, and may even be able to bring herself to let him die by being with him in the hospital. Why he didn’t heal in the hospital after the liquor store robbery before she got there I don’t understand. All he had to do was make it down the hall for them to both start recovering.
Some more detail on why they have outlasted all the other pair-bonded supernatural beings would have been interesting. It seems neither of them age when they’re apart and they don’t have to be too far apart to retain their powers and they don’t lose them too quickly(although he seemed to both lose and recover his faster than she did hers). Their quirks seem to have driven this. His propensity for taking on battles that aren’t his own and her survival instincts(mainly being willing to leave him whenever he needs a boost) make them an interesting couple.
I was actually thinking that they could have made a long distance relationship work. Set up a remote apartment that only they can get to, meet for the weekends, and then separate for the week.
It could have worked with or without the back story. If they took out Charlize’s character it would have been a different movie, but it could have been good either way. They just need to establish rules that make sense. If they regain their powers after walking down the hall, they could have just lived in a really big house.
She did realize he had amnesia. In fact, that’s why she left him. She said when she went to the hospital to see him and saw he didn’t remember, she figured he couldn’t miss what he didn’t know.
I think the mythology could have worked if Charlize’s character acted more. . . logically. Instead of trying to beat him up and telling him to go away she could have explained what the problem was. Then they could have dumped the stupid villain and worked on the mythology and the love triangle. And could have had a great redemptive grand finale.
A little more on this part-- I thought that was where the movie was going to go after Batemen watched them making out on the big pile of rubble the super-duo made in thier lover’s quarrel. And if Hancock had actually done something to deserve her ire. When he told her “I’m sorry! For whatever I did, I’m sorry.” I just knew we were going to find out what it was he did.