Hancock: A Review

Hancock: Short Review

No good!

Hancock: Longer, non-spoiler review

I saw this film under what are generally ideal filmgoing circumstances: uninformed save for having seen a teaser trailer 12 months previous. No outlandish expectations. Open mind.
The premise was of Will Smith, the titular Hancock, as 'Superman who doesn't care' is intriguing.
A man with Superman's abilities but with his morals and resonsibilities replaced by alcoholism and indifference promises much. It is fresh.

The first act follows this thread and is entertaining but slight. Hancock saves people but destroys much in the process. He saves a PR Executive (Jason Bateman) who seeks to brighten Hancock's image.

From there the film takes off in a different direction - explaining the amnesiac Hancock's origins and his road to redemption. The ideas are energetic and exciting but there are too many and they have no space to breathe. All told, the film plays like the Wikipedia entry of a fantastic film trilogy. Afterwards I considered the events depicted and thought "that's an awesome idea, I wish I'd seen that". the movie is all the more disappointing for what it could have been. There's real brilliance here, but it's smothered by sloppy, truncated writing.

Bateman is great as the put-upon, well-meaning schlub - he always is. Charlize Theron handles the role of wife and a later shift well. Will Smith is entertaining, and there are some great depicitons of his superpowers at work. The overarching mythology of what Hancock is is intriguing, and I would have liked to see more. I applaud it for its risks.

On reflection much of the plot makes little sense. The villian is shoe-horned in and unneccessary, and the film thinks we fear and awe him when he arrives. We don't.

Hancock: Final, Spoilery thoughts

When Charlize Theron arrives, after the revelation that she has superpowers, she is suddenly a leather-clad vamp. Why? Her outfit matches Hancock's but we saw Hancock receive the sut with no input. Lame.

The villain is stopped from robbing a bank by Hancock. He arrives late in the game like Hancock's nemesis and we do not care. He shoots Hancock while Hancock is depowered. How did this man know he would arrive at the hospital at the exact moment Hancock was without powers, when Hancock himself did not know it would happen? He didn't. He couldn't.

"Don't call me a [blank]" is repeated seventy bazillion times, by a number of characters. It grates.

Hancock literally shoves a man's head up another man's ass. It is shown. Shown for laughs. It pulls the film out of the reality is is striving for and robs it of tension. "Oh, it's a cartoon now. I don't care."

Hancock and Theron apparently lose their powers when they are close to each other. This only happens after effects-heavy super fights though.

Hancock saves the day by running away. Well ... he leaps away, with the powers he does not have.