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| Hancock (Theatrical Release) | Jeff Harris, July 10, 2008 |
Genre: Superhero comedic action
Producer: Overbrook Productions Distributor: Columbia Pictures Director: Peter Berg Medium: American live-action animation Rated: PG-13 (for violence, surliness, public drunkeness, adult situations, tense moments, and ) The Skinny: A public relations expert tries to rehabilitate the public image of a surly superpowered being who saves the day but generally disliked by the public Think: Jerry Maguire with a heaping helping of Iron Man minus the funds.
Pros: Interesting premise, great acting, a plot twist I never saw coming.
My Take:
In what's possibly the first time ever, Will Smith plays a truly unlikeable character, a super-powered avenger named Hancock who acts anything but heroic. His costume resembles that of a vagrant. He drinks and reeks of alcohol. He cusses in front of everybody, even children. Nobody likes Hancock. Hancock doesn't like them either. He also doesn't like himself. So when Ray (Jason Bateman), a marketing executive who's having problems trying to get corporations to be more charitable, gets saved by the surly hero, he attempts to reinvent the hero into a likeable one. His wife, Mary (Charlize Theron), is less than impressed with Hancock's heroics and tries to get on the hero's nerves. After a brief stint in prison where he confronts some of the individuals he helped capture, Hancock reemerges as a more polite, not so destructive hero, saving a group of hostages from a group of bank robbers after slicing the lead robber's hand with a trigger off his body. Hancock revealed some of what he remembered about himself to Ray and Mary, creating a sense of friendship. Later that evening, Hancock confronted Mary about her iciness towards him where a major revelation about herself and her connection to Hancock was made. The revelation caused a bit of conflict between Ray, Mary, and Hancock. When the once-invincible hero became mortal, Hancock's new friends were by his side while a sinister plot to get rid of the hero once and for all. Will Hancock survive, and how will he handle the major revelation in the end? I liked this movie. Usually, superhero movies are pretty much formulaic. A guy lives a regular life, finds himself empowered, takes on evil, moves on to the next challenge if the first movie's successful. Hancock wasn't an origin story by any stretch. There were glimpses about his origins, particularly what happened 80 years before (if you think about society in that part of the world, it's actually pretty tragic and probably could have easily happened without super heroics in real life), but Hancock's past is past, both to him and the filmgoer, and that works. This is essentially a story about a fallen hero who found someone who really believed in him when others, including himself, didn't. If you want to look deepr than that, this is truly Ray's story as well as Hancock's. Ray's a dreamer, wanting to change the world, but nobody wants to listen to him. Hancock has the power to do that but nobody want to deal with him. In essence, they both need each other and they do grow by the end of the movie. The flight sequences seemed more natural than many similar sequences in fantasy and super hero films. There wasn't a need for elaborate graphic blandishment for CGI creatures and such in the story, so the lack of over-detailed creatures and weaponry wasn't a hinderance. This is pretty much how a superhero would be viewed in the real world There did seem to be something missing in Hancock. There wasn't a real antagonist. Mary seemed to be against Hancock's distruption of her happy home, but her feelings towards hero was softened because of her past connection to Hancock. The fight scene between probably would put most superhero throwdowns to shame (think Superman vs. Darkseid on the finale of JLU). As for the final fight with the main villain . . . it was anticlimatic and almost predictable. Hancock wasn't really challenged until he literally faced his past. Also, the flagrant use of one particular profane word throughout the film was a little jarring, especially when a pair of kids used it in a couple of scenes. Wonder how they're going to clean it up when Hancock airs on regular television in a few years. Regardless, I can say that I enjoyed Hancock. I'm impressed that they didn't go strictly for laughs how other superheroic films with Black comedic actors in the lead role tend to do (I'm looking at you Blankman and Meteor Man). In a cynical world, perhaps we need a cynical hero. They rejected him because he mirrored the environment that spawned him. Only when he became a beacon of hope did the people accept and embrace him. That' all happened because someone believed in him. Okay, that was way too deep even for me.
FINAL REVIEW: (Five-Scale Rating)
FINAL JUDGEMENT: 3 out of 5 |
Will Smith as essentially the biggest star on the planet. Every year, he makes one or two movies guaranteed to bring in a huge audience. Last year, it was a remake of I Am Legend. This year, it's another entry in the year of the unlikely superhero. Hot off the heels of Robert Downey, Jr's potentially Oscar-worthy performance as Tony Stark in Iron Man (and the fact that major critics are seriously saying he might snag one for a super hero movie is shocking to say the least), Edward Norton's take on The Incredible Hulk, the return of Indiana Jones, and the upcoming returns of Hellboy and Batman, Will Smith stars in Hancock.