I admire what they tried, it's a pity that they failed.

Rating: 5/10 (28 November 2008)

I admire what they tried, it's a pity that they failed. I'm not going to talk about the stars or the effects, this comment is only regarding the story.
This might have worked as a TV series, or perhaps it just needed a couple more years in script development to pull it off. The twist mid-way-ish felt like there was a tonne of exposition that had been held back from the audience to catch up on. I normally wouldn't mind that but because the subject matter was fantasy, the explanation felt long, forced and disconnected from the story we had been watching. If it was a TV series then perhaps these plot elements could have been set up long before in earlier episodes. It might have worked as a film if it was an established superhero character. But to just start listing the rules to the universe midway through a film, for a character we are only just beginning to know, just didn't work. Maybe if they had spent the first half setting up Hancock's search for answers it may have worked, but that would have probably made everything too obvious. In fact they probably hurt it by having a plot twist at all. The character Hancock generated enough sympathy that if we'd known the truth we would have kept watching and waiting for him to find out. I'm not really sure what holding back all that information did for the plot (except create the need for a large amount of exposition in the middle of the film).
There were probably a few people who felt a little uncomfortable over the romance element. I did too, but I would have forgiven it if there was a point to it, and I believe there was, I just don't think it was expressed well enough to make an impact.
Anyway, nice try, and thanks for trying something a little more original. I really appreciate they tried to make something a little different but unfortunately it just didn't work in the end.