Will Smith lifts Jason Bateman’s car in Hancock
by Gary Sundt
Just before the start of summer movie season, my roommate pulled several movie posters from Total Film magazine. Most of them were garbage, but there a few jewels that made it up on the wall: The Dark Knight, Hellboy II, WALL-E and Peter Berg’s Hancock. Unfortunately, what must go up, must come down, and in the case of Hancock, that time is coming sooner rather than later.
Hancock starts off poking good fun at the comic book superhero genre that has become so popular in recent years. Will Smith plays the title character, who flies around with a bottle of whisky in hand and “saving the day” while taxpayers pay the price. Nobody likes this guy, primarily because (and as the movie states several times) he’s an asshole. But when our hero saves public relations professional Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman) from an oncoming train (and destroying said train in the process), the rescued decides to help the rescuer with a bit of good marketing. Ray’s wife Mary (Charlize Theron) disagrees, and keeps giving Hancock a weird look.
Anyway, Hancock decides to take Ray up on the revamp, and goes to jail to pay his debt to society. Crime is on the rise without the bum, who is busy sobering up, getting a new costume and shoving criminals heads up other criminals butts. Ray tells Hancock to stick with it because the mayor is going to call any day now. Sure enough, the phone rings, and its off to fight crime as a sober and clean-shaven superhero. And now everybody loves Hancock.
This is probably all screenwriters Vy Vincent Ngo and Vince Gilligan had down when they turned in the script. The director and stars were most likely handed 40 pages with a promise of more to come. I say this because there is almost no warning when the movie takes a 180 degree turn and becomes a dramatic piece involving ancient quarrels and relatively lame villains. From this point on, the movie is no longer satirizing, but rather ripping off other movies in the genre.
I know every critic has discussed how the plot of Hancock suffers from a split personality. But let’s face it: that’s the problem here. The movie straight up runs out of ideas. It jumps the shark at the 50 minute mark. And to be honest, I liked it better when Hancock was drinking. Maybe that isn’t a good message to send to the kids, but the movie was more interesting.
There are things to appreciate in Hancock, but those come primarily in the form of Smith and Bateman, who are perfectly cast for the portion of the film that stays true to its premise. Theron is sadly underused in the first half of the film, and entirely misused in the second half. The film was shot by Tobias A. Schliessler in the ever-popular shaky-cam style, which is really a love it or hate it situation. I think it was a poor choice, but it does give the realism Hancock wants so desperately to invoke.
I’d like to track back to the scene where everything changes and Hancock becomes a different movie. IMDb.com states under their “plot” section that “a hard-living superhero who has fallen out of favor with the public enters into a questionable relationship with the wife of the public relations professional who’s trying to repair his image.” Technically this is correct. But let’s look at that scene for a minute. You don’t really know its coming. It’s awkward and forced. Smith and Theron are trying to make it seem natural, but it isn’t happening.
And then somebody gets thrown through a house. I understand how they felt, because I felt the same way after the scene. Bewildered. Angry. Lied to. The point: movies shouldn’t make you feel that way unless they are made by Michael Moore.
Running time: 92 minutes. Directed by Peter Berg. Produced by Akiva Goldsman, James Lassiter, Michael Mann and Will Smith. Screenplay by Vy Vincent Ngo and Vince Gilligan. Starring Will Smith, Jason Bateman, Charlize Theron, Jae Head and Eddie Marsan. A Columbia Pictures release. Rated PG-13
