Movie Review: Hancock

 

Oh how the mighty have fallen.  Take a well thought up premise, three very talented actors, and mix it with a sadly pathetic story and you get Hancock.  

I love Will Smith.  Everything from his wry sense of humor to his intense and convincing dramatic performances, he has become the most bankable movie star of the past ten years.  I love Charlize Theron, from her mouth dropping (non-anorexic) body, to her perfectly piercing eyes and her equally powerful ability to grip an audience, she has never fallen off the radar as so many actresses tend to do from time to time in their careers.  Jason Bateman is a gem as well.  He makes acting seem effortless and he squeezes every ounce of dry humor out of scenes that otherwise would fall flat.  So, how do these three performers come together to make such a weak film?

It starts with the script.  It always starts with the script.  Then it moves on to the direction and cinematography.  The story was disjointed and amounted to a strange love affair between superheroes and an intangible story of centuries past just did not fit.  I realized early on there were going to be problems in the way it was filmed as well.  Long, close up shots with far too much fabricated intensity were sucking the theater of all its enjoyment. 

The action sequences were ok.  It was interesting how they construed Hancock’s drunken, ineffectual acts of heroism.  His drunken flying, with his awkward landings and anti-Superman poses were great.  Some of the humor was dead on, although much of the best scenes were given away in the trailer.  There is a great scene in which Jason Bateman tries explain how to say, “good job,” that made me laugh even though you could see it coming from a mile away.

This dramedy leaned far too much in the direction of drama and hit a brick wall of my capacity to give a shit.  Movies like this succeed in their light-hearted nature and the ability to throw tidbits of drama in to satiate the audiences need for a deeper conflict.  Hancock simply took itself too seriously and audiences will not.  Unlike other superhero films of recent, Hancock does not exist in the world of comics and as such extra care should have been given to create a simple, understandable story that would allow the audience to come back for more (sequel).  Lucky for the studios, it stars Will Smith, and Charlize Theron fails to wear a bra for most scenes, so I think it will make enough dough to cover their costs.  It might even be enough to warrant a sequel, but I hope not.  I would prefer to see Bad Bays III, MiB III, or hell, Ali II: Punches to Parkinson’s.  (My respects Mohammed Ali, you are my favorite boxer of all time.)  

Rating **  (There was potential for something here, but it fell flat on its face.  Waste a minute on this, you’re a fool.)