Review 75: Hancock

Hancock is a strange, uneven yet interesting take on Superhero lore and is a lot fun.

John Hancock (Will Smith) is an amnesic, alcoholic, sarcastic, hard-living, reluctant, misunderstood Superhero who fights crime in Los Angeles but who also leaves horrendous collateral damage in the wake of every well-intentioned feat he performs. Hancock, however, doesn't care and has fallen out of favour with the public. However after saving the life of PR Executive Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman) and meeting and bonding with him and his wife Mary (Charlize Theron), Hancock grudgingly agrees to an extreme makeover and attempt to turn his life and reputation around.

The plot starts out as an interesting and often funny, albeit rather crass, satire on Superheroes. It's initially a film about a real human character who just happens to be a superhero as opposed to a straight up superhero movie but around about the halfway point, it shifts gears and quickly descends into ridiculous nonsense. This is part I won’t get into except that at the 55-minute mark, a major revolution between Hancock and Mary sends the story veering into territory that feels rushed and doesn’t gel with the rest of the film because it feels so disconnected from the earlier half of the film and makes Hancock’s origin rather arbitrary. But overall, the revalations about Hancock's origin and the mythology surrounding him doesn't work for two reasons. 1. The film goes from character driven to plot driven it tries to hard to make it seem like this larger mythology serves the characters but instead it makes the film feel top heavy as a result. 2. It discredits the (mostly) ground first half with a half-baked origin story that feels at odds with itself.

 

Hancock starts out as man without direction who finds a friend in Ray who believes in him despite all of his flaws and helps him to find purpose and a newfound faith in people when he though he was all alone. The film hits the ground running with that premise and all of that is handled very well and it told very genuinely and earnestly with loads of heart, engaging drama along with a dose of crude humour and it makes for a very engaging viewing for about the first hour but after that point the film and its script almost immediately shifts gear and descends into typical sci-fi, comic book far, which is what it was initially trying to avoid, and gives a new story which didn't come to expect. Hancock essentially becomes (as youtube channel Superhero Rewind put it rather eloquently) its own sequel.

A running gag throughout the film is that people call Hancock an a**hole and this for all intense and purposes becomes a trigger word for him. This leads to him retaliating by shoving his opponents heads up their backsides - it's one of many unconventional, crass jokes this film has to offer and I guess that it never occurs to the general public that if you want nothing to do with drunk superhero, you wouldn't insult him. Just saying.

It's defiantly flawed admittedly but it is fun, exciting and interesting and does keep your attention.

Director Peter Berg's direction is ranges from sharp to uneven, handling both halves of the film with excellent craftsmanship and deftly blending juvenile humour with earnest heartfelt drama but never  the special effects are spectacular. The production design is superb: with this film, we're presented with a rather grimy & unusually unglamorous version of Los Angles, it's crime ridden, chaotic and gritty adding a much needed amount of realism to a very lighthearted film. Hancock captures that aspect brilliantly designwise. The costumes are terrific, the score by John Powell is appropriately low-key and catchy, the action scenes are exciting and excellently staged. the make up is  the verite cinematography is fantastic and brings a cool, earthly qaulity to the peace.  
 
Overall, one of the elements that holds this film together is the acting. Will Smith, Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman are well cast and slip into their individual roles excellently. 
 
Will Smith, in a role that casts him against type, is pretty engaging as John Hancock, mixing Superhero angst with his unique brand of charisma. What's interesting about the character of John Hancock is that he's not your average, a-typical superhero. He wakes every day and he's mad at the world.
He has no memory of who he is or of what happened to him and he has no who can turn to and ask to help him find answers. So behaving like an a-hole who'd rather get drunk than save lives is pretty understandable. He has to fight to keep up that belligerent facade, he's crude, scraggy, antisocial and an alcoholic yet he's also incapable of standing back and watching innocence get hurt.
Even when he's not acting like a massive jerk and when he's opening up to Ray & Mary he come across as really genuine and sincere; he sees the better side of humanity in them.

Jason Bateman is also very strong in this film as Ray Embrey. He's one of those characters who sees life through rose-coloured glasses and can't understand how people can't see the positive side of Hancock.

He sees through the destruction causing a-hole that people perceive Hancock to be and sees the misunderstood creature on the inside and reaches out to him and offers to help turn his life around and become a better person. Possibly becoming the first person to have done that in what feels like a lifetime for Hancock. Ray is the heart and soul of this film, he figures out how to use his skills for a challenging but more realistic goal than he's attempted before. Hancock rehab is his reward for his eternal optimism.

Charlize Theron is fantastic playing Mary, Ray’s wife expertly capturing the stern, stoic and mysterious demeanour she’s supposed to inhabit. Outwardly an ordinary housewife, her families encounter with Hancock reveals some interesting secrets about her, ones that may tie to Hancock's mysterious past. But what makes that development feel undercooked is that Mary plays rather coy. 

In the end, Hancock is just as intriguing and funny as it is heartfelt and uneven, 3/5.

The Anonymous Critic.