Hancock (PG-13)
Mike:
Mike: Tonight I am reviewing Hancock
, the new Will Smith July 4th extravaganza about a superhero, who really doesn’t want to be a superhero.
Scott was unable to attend.
Mike: What did I think?
This movie was definitely not what I thought it was going to be. This film is a mish mash of comic book action, comedy, drama and special effects. Even after several days I’m struggling with what to say. Once again I liked it but I didn’t love it. Part of the problem is I can’t just put this movie in a nice neat box and label it. And maybe that is a good thing. While the story has promise, it suffers from a bad third act.
After seeing the trailers I worried that this was going to be a movie about a guy with powers that is happy to be a butthead and doesn’t care. I thought, “Wow that’s going to be hard to sit through”. Luckily that is not the case. Will Smith’s John Hancock is turned around by Jason Bateman’s Ray Embry, a public relations expert who Hancock has saved. There’s also Mary Embry (Charlize Theron), Ray’s wife, who does not take a shine to his new superhero friend. The three leads all do a fine job, much as you would expect. Smith makes sure that his lead character is not one dimensional. Theron isn’t given much to do but scowl at Hancock for about the first half of the film.
The first hour of the movie sticks to the comedic side that both Smith and Bateman do so well. In fact, they are such a great pairing that I am sorry we have not seen them together before. Many of the funny portions really strike gold and one scene in a prison yard literally had the audience howling. Me included.
There are some heroic stunts, but sadly the special effects do not seem to be up to the par of recent superhero or action movies. When Hancock flies, it looks like Superman… of 1978. Aside from the quality, we are overwhelmed by the quantity. Anything in the surrounding area that can be broken, destroyed or mangled, is. I don’t think I have ever seen so much ripped up asphalt and broken glass.
On the positive side, I will say that this movie throws in a clever twist that, frankly, I did not see coming. Unfortunately, before that can be as satisfying as we want, things get violent and dramatic and all comedy is thrown out the window. Then the next thing the audience knows, the movie is over. Amazingly this summer blockbuster is only 92 minutes long. The funny thing is this movie is different enough that you actually want to know more. You want it to be longer. You want it to have a more of an ending.
Local Richmonder Vince Gilligan is one half of the writing team. Gilligan may be best known as a writer for the X-Files and the recent Breaking Bad series. I thought that director Peter Berg was more polished than what he shows us here. He blew me away with last years The Kingdom. If this movie had that touch it would have a chance at being a true blockbuster. I am sure that Will Smith’s fans will run out and see this movie, but the shame is that it could have been more.
How do I rate this?
I give this a 3 overall and a 3 for being a blend of too many genres. This might be a little more than this film deserves, but I give points for genuine surprise, which doesn’t happen often enough.
This July 4th weekend you could do worse than hang out with John Hancock.
