SUMMARY:

Metropolis has its Superman, Gotham City its Batman and Los Angeles has...Hancock, (Will Smith) an angry, surly, foulmouthed hard-drinking superhero who leaves a plethora of collateral damage in his wake whenever he sets out to save the day. His life changes after he saves the life of PR whiz Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman) and Hancock gets to discover who he really is.

STEVE SAYS:

Rarely have I seen critics so divided over a single movie as they are over HANCOCK. Some, like Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times and Todd McCarthy of Daily Variety, posit that the film goes seriously off the rails following a major plot twist a little over halfway through the story. Others, like Peter Travers of Rolling Stone and Manohla Dargis of the New York Times are hailing HANCOCK, calling it a triumph. I fall somewhere in between. Generally, I loved the movie and regard it as a major shift in the telling of a superhero story. The plot twist didn’t trouble me at all and, I think, added to the heft of the movie.

From its premise, HANCOCK could be a knock-about comedy and it certainly was promoted that way in its trailers and advertising. While it does have some richly comic moments, the film is more drama than comedy and is an effective treatise on the theme of people needing other people. HANCOCK is an angry drunk because he feels isolated from the rest of the world. Indeed, his home is a shabby trailer in the desert. While his impulse is to do good, he does so in such a clumsy and scattered way as to become a public menace. In an early sequence, Hancock puts an end to a dangerous freeway chase by dragging the bad guys’ car into the air, striking and damaging several buildings on the way up and culminating with impaling the car on the needle on the Capitol Records Tower’s roof and leaving nine million dollars in damage in his wake. Instead of being thanked, he is reviled and criticized, further fueling his anger and isolation.

But the reluctant superhero’s life changes after meeting Ray Embrey and his wife and son (Charlize Theron, Jae Head) who idolizes Hancock. Embrey is out to change the world by trying to convince corporations to step up to the plate and be responsible members of society...an effort that generally meets with “Are you crazy” stares? So he settles for helping the world by helping Hancock to be a better man and thus, a better superhero.

Theron and Bateman provide sound support for the always engaging Will Smith. The overwhelming box office success proves that Smith still owns the Fourth of July weekend at the multiplex, a tradition started twelve years ago with INDEPENDENCE DAY. It also serves to confirm that Smith is bullet-proof where the critics are concerned. None of the negative reviews I read kept me away from HANCOCK and I was glad that I saw past their short-sightedness.

To be sure, HANCOCK is a strange duck of a movie. But anything that strays from formula and breaks the mold is okay in my book. The script by Vy Vincent Ngo and Vince Gilligan (X-FILES) is solid. Director Peter Berg has a sure hand on the tiller of this one and the special effects tend to serve the story without overwhelming it. HANCOCK is solid entertainment with a positive message. What more could you ask for in a movie?

* * * *

PATTY SAYS:

I needed a little superhero fix this weekend. I’ve been waiting all summer for Batman and since I love everything that Will Smith has ever done, it wasn’t a hard sell to get me out in the heat to see HANCOCK. Sure, the premise was a little twisted and maybe the movie didn’t explain exactly who HANCOCK is, where he came from and how he got so grumpy. Okay so the ending didn’t quite hold up and one can only suspend her belief in reality only so far...even if it is in service of the concept that love is bigger than life.

It’s Will Smith doin’ his Will Smith thing and I can forgive those small transgressions.

Much has been said about the plot twist. I think it makes the film more interesting...perhaps it makes our favorite superhero more “human.” Will Smith creates in Hancock a very human guy with supernatural powers rather than a superhero who tries to get in touch with his inner human. It’s that notable departure that makes HANCOCK something different in a celluloid forest of spandex and monster triceps.

I liked it.

The story could have been a little tighter. Chris could tell you what special effects were good and which were lacking. I found it hard to imagine a superhero with so little regard for what Steve describes as “collateral damage.” The bad guys, however, didn’t cause me any anxiety at all. It’s as though they morphed into bad guys as an afterthought and the screenwriter said, “Oh shit, the Joker is busy doing BATMAN. What do I do now?” The story had a nice pace, however and I didn’t squirm in my seat as I’m apt to do when things drag.

Sorry Will, it isn’t your fault.

July 7, 2008