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Let me start off by saying that Hancock is not that bad. The critics might have led you to believe it is an epic disaster, but it is definetly not. A disappointment, yes, and the first of the summer for me. But anyone who claims it is anything worse than average might need their brain evaluating. Or perhaps, the foul stench of disappointment is blinding people. You probably know this yourself since America, Germany and the UK flocked to see this on the July 4th weekend, but in case you haven't, I'd suggest making up your own mind.

 

John Hancock (Will Smith) is a superhero. He's not quite the oridnary superhero, since he's a washed-up loser with a temper and perchant for whiskey. Causing lots of property damage in his wake, Hancock is probably the most hated superhero ever. Ray Embry (Jason Bateman) has seen this, and when Hancock saves his life, he decides to repay the favour by giving Hancock an image makeover and become the hero every one wants him to be. The first step being a stint in the clink.

 

Hancock is a frustrating movie really. For the first 80 minutes or so of its surprisingly brief 92 minutes of running time, it is a reasonably funny summer comedy that you might expect out of Will Smith and the advertising campaign, albeit with darker edges. The film makes no bones out of making Hancock a massive jerk and many of the funniest moments are when he fires back acid-tongued retorts to his detractors. I found several moments quite funny, including a particularly painful-looking anal intrusion.

 

Will Smith, as usual, oozes charm and charisma, which is no surprise since he has these two valuable qualities in spades. He deals with the film's comedic and the occasional dramatic moment very well, although there are limits to how far he can do this. If I am being honest, pre-transformation Hancock is far more interesting and entertaining than rehabilated Hancock, but that's not really anything Smith can deal with, since it is the curse of all movies involving a character personality change. Smith continues to impress me as a performer, even when his films don't. Smith is one of those few people I can say I can like even though I'm not a fan of films like Bad Boys II, I, Robot, and Enemy of the State.

 

Jason Bateman is similarly impressive as Ray. I can't say I've seen Bateman in Arrested Development, nor have I seen him in the howlingly bad (ouch) Teen Wolf Too. In fact, the only things I have seen him in before was in The Kingdom and most notably as Pepper Brooks in Dodgeball, where he was incredibly funny. Here he shows a lot of charm and works well as Smith's foil, adding some much needed deadpan humour above the chaos. It was also refreshing to see a PR man who wasn't represented as being Satan hiding in soft human flesh for change, so I do commend the screenwriters for that.

 

What I don't commend the screenwriters for is their foreshadowing. If you have a twist, for the love of God, do not hint at the reveal every time you mention the plot strand leading towards it. It could not have been more obvious if it tried. I'm not sure whether this was in the script, Peter Berg's direction or both, but I knew there was a twist coming from a million miles off. Cut to meaningful glance. Heck, the character even enters with a goddamn meaningful glance. The film also has a very poor villian, that was obviously added as an after-thought and it shows.

 

Where the film messes up is in its massive tonal shift. You sense it when it happens very late in the film. Its like someone took the first 80 pages of a comedy script and then stuck in the ending of an earlier dramatic draft for the climax. Everything about the climax is wrong. This is not the first time a Will Smith event movie has ended poorly, but this is worse than that re-shot ending to I Am Legend. There is a character explaination that is so false, you don't believe it for one second. The climax of the film is very dark and violent, and considering the quite breezy, but gently bitter, earlier section of the movie, it is very garring indeed. I wouldn't be surprised if this ending was yet another re-shoot. The ending even starts making up crap as it goes along, whether it makes sense with preceeding scenes or not. The direction in these final scenes is also much flatter, lacking Berg's usual confidence in films such as The Rundown (known in the UK as Welcome to the Jungle), The Kingdom and most of Hancock. This looks like someone trying to imitate him. Something has gone dreadfully wrong with the ending.

 

One could make a case for Hancock being an embodiment of America, as shown by the prominent eagle imagery, like on his suit, his hat and the park bench he wakes on. He/America wants to help, but keeps wrecking things. America/Hancock manages to change their image, but is attracted to danger that weakens them and endangers others. Ultimately, Hancock learns he has to keep his distance. Now, of course, this could be me making things up that aren't there, but I doubt that they would have included that eagle imagery if they didn't want us to notice it. If this is what I think it is, it is yet another sign of a film that has great amabitions that it does not get to complete.

SPOILERS END HERE.

 

Hancock is a flawed but diverting 90 minutes at the cinema, which is all too frustrating as it could have been so much more than that. I suspect many people's opinions have been tinted by the particularly poor ending, but for the most part, Hancock does deliver some good laughs. But I doubt you'll remember it by the time The Dark Knight and Hellboy II: The Golden Army roll around. I hope the true cut makes its way to DVD like I Am Legend did.

 

 

And, while we're on the subject of Hancock, I might as well mention this. On the dreaded YouTube, I entered a UK contest for the film where if you play a troubled superhero, you get a camcorder. If you've been keeping track with my blog, you may be getting a sense of deja vu about now. I managed to come up with a great idea and with a great cast and crew we came up with a fantastic 5 minute product. Oh, and it you're a fan of the TV series Heroes (which I love), you might want tocheck this out since we had certain appearance by a popular character.

 

 

Unfortunately, the contest only allowed a 2 minute version, so unfortunately, I had to cut up my baby. But hey, I might get a camcorder out of it.

 

 

So enjoy the weird absurdities of my troubled superhero, shot with a budget of £0, which may or may not be better than a big-budget Hollywood version. Anyway, I better sign off for now. Until next time...