Michael Lown
BartoHancock: flawed hero movie
July 17th 2008 04:22
Hancock dreams of being so much edgier and original than it is that you can’t help but smile at it politely as it goes about its business. In between the smiling you’ll pause and marvel at the plot inconsistencies. After that you may well never think of the movie again, unless it’s to ponder the scope of talent that came together to create such a mediocrity.
You can see what they’re trying to say in the opening sequence. Take the flawed hero chestnut and put it on steroids. Will Smith is Hancock, a drunk who swears at kids (that’s the attempt at edginess). He also happens to be a flying immortal with Herculean strength, who goes about saving the day with maximum damage. LA, being the city it is, finds the cost of cleaning up after him far outweighs the benefit of his ill-conceived heroics. Enter a PR guru Jason Bateman, who decides he needs an image makeover, which goes perfectly to plan. Enter PR guru’s wife Charlize Theron who splits her screen time between being a dedicated wife and mother, and having maximum eye tension with Hancock. Except you know there’s more to her than that… because otherwise there is absolutely no reason to hire Charlize Theron. The rest is a garbled back-story, a character back-flip that makes no sense, and some reasonable comedy.
The film struggles because of it’s lack of villain, and a sense that the ending is never in doubt. Because of both these things, and despite some big effects, the action is hollow. Which is fine as long as you’re not making an action super hero movie. That leaves the comedy which is occasionally hilarious (thanks largely to Bateman), and the drama, which isn’t very involving.
The whole thing is so uneven you get the sense this thing got the absolute crap edited out of it. I imagine it started off actually being edgy, and then slowly shuffled away from that. The talent probably signed on to a different script, and the director probably found himself piecing it together after the studio took out the scissors. As a result the logic is all over the place and the tone is undecided.
None of the three mains come out humiliated (Will Smith is the Teflon man – he made Wild Wild West), but this is an addition to their resume you’ll find under ‘Profitable and Perfunctory’.
You can see what they’re trying to say in the opening sequence. Take the flawed hero chestnut and put it on steroids. Will Smith is Hancock, a drunk who swears at kids (that’s the attempt at edginess). He also happens to be a flying immortal with Herculean strength, who goes about saving the day with maximum damage. LA, being the city it is, finds the cost of cleaning up after him far outweighs the benefit of his ill-conceived heroics. Enter a PR guru Jason Bateman, who decides he needs an image makeover, which goes perfectly to plan. Enter PR guru’s wife Charlize Theron who splits her screen time between being a dedicated wife and mother, and having maximum eye tension with Hancock. Except you know there’s more to her than that… because otherwise there is absolutely no reason to hire Charlize Theron. The rest is a garbled back-story, a character back-flip that makes no sense, and some reasonable comedy.
The film struggles because of it’s lack of villain, and a sense that the ending is never in doubt. Because of both these things, and despite some big effects, the action is hollow. Which is fine as long as you’re not making an action super hero movie. That leaves the comedy which is occasionally hilarious (thanks largely to Bateman), and the drama, which isn’t very involving.
The whole thing is so uneven you get the sense this thing got the absolute crap edited out of it. I imagine it started off actually being edgy, and then slowly shuffled away from that. The talent probably signed on to a different script, and the director probably found himself piecing it together after the studio took out the scissors. As a result the logic is all over the place and the tone is undecided.
None of the three mains come out humiliated (Will Smith is the Teflon man – he made Wild Wild West), but this is an addition to their resume you’ll find under ‘Profitable and Perfunctory’.
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