Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Will Smith stars as Hancock, a sarcastic, hard-living and misunderstood superhero who has fallen out of favor with the public. When Hancock grudgingly agrees to an extreme makeover from idealistic publicist Ray Embrey, his life and reputation rise from the ashes and all seems right again - until he meets a woman with similar powers to his and the key to his secret past.

Hancock got a really mixed reception this summer at the box office. While some liked the fresh look at the superhero genre, many were turned off with the themes. I actually really enjoyed this one. I loved the darker humor and laughed my butt off the first half of the film. The second half goes in a different direction but I still enjoyed it. This new Blu-ray features an extended cut that really doesn’t change much. It adds a short sequence with the girl early on in the film but I didn’t notice too much else. Honestly, I like the theatrical cut better. I just wish Sony wouldn’t have killed some of the twists with their AWFUL Blu-ray cover art.

This is a great looking Blu-ray that takes stylization up a notch or two. Contrast is exaggerated throughout with deep, deep blacks and slightly overblown whites. This does wonders for the dimension of the film but shadow detail suffers a bit. Colors are extremely vivid and lean a bit toward the yellow side but we’ve seen this a lot from newer films and it wasn’t distracting. Fine detail is breathtaking at times, especially in the close ups. Some of the CG effects are a bit on the softer side but I didn’t think it stole away too much from the presentation. Overall this was a very strong release for Sony.

The audio presentation was a bit of a hit or miss for me. I saw this in D-Cinema and remember being quite impressed with the range of the soundtrack and the lower end. Unfortunately there are several sequences here that seem to be compromised in low bass presence. The train sequence and opening gun fight are perfect examples. Some of the other bigger sequences have plenty of low bass presence and spectacular panning effects, but this makes the other scenes that much more obvious when it comes to their lack of dynamic presence. I also noticed some slight strain and noise in the dialogue, which is uncommon on most Sony releases. While this is still a strong surround effort overall, it wasn’t the complete homerun I was expecting.

On top of getting two separate versions of the film, Sony has included a picture-in-picture feature with interviews, behind the scenes footage and commentary on the film. You also get a slew of production features that go into everything from production design to the special effects. Trailers and BD-Live connectivity are also included. Sony has also included a digital copy of the film on a second disc.

This was one of the more enjoyable summer releases that offered some surprising dark humor that has been missing for awhile. Sony has done a good job with the presentation, but the audio track seemed a bit amiss. If you didn’t get the chance to see this one during the summer, you really should give it a try.