Hancock

A Superhero called John Hancock is a serious loose wire. He pretty much has all the powers of Superman but has seemingly lost his way in life and prefers to drink himself unconcious and when he does actually get off his backside to help people, he causes more damage than the criminals and would probably be better staying asleep on the park bench.
The entire populous of the city, and probably the whole world, hate Hancock and his heavy handed, drunk, bad mouthed ways and wish him to simply disappear.

When he saves the life of Public Relations wizard Ray Embry (albeit while destroying several cars and a freight train in the process), Ray makes Hancock a promise... to get him off the booze, sort out his public image, and make him a Superhero that everyone will love.


Bit of an odd one this, what starts out as a promising movie with lots of laughs and some high octane comicbook action mixed with some bad language and an alcoholic immortal, turns very quickly into a story of cheesy morals and faux sentiment and an extremely dodgy love triangle.

The actual screenplay is tip top though, it's linear where it needs to be but adds a couple of little twists along the way to keep the audience fixed, but sadly that's about it. It plays out really well but the overall story and plot are what let it all down.

It becomes a very doughy and gooey love story with an apparent background based in fantasy and becomes just too rushed writing wise at the end to really capture the viewer's imagination. It's as though the writers couldn't think how to develope the third act so went for the Hollywood default setting of faux mushy sentiment and dodgy romance.

What I think let the film down more than anything else is that the studio cut and shred it after filming because originally it was rated 18... in Britain it's been shredded to the point that it's now a PG movie, meaning it's suitable for all ages in Britain. Bad form.

Another thing the film fails at, is character development. It tries hard to give a few changes throughout the film but they're just not believeable with the poor script writing.


The action is what the film really tries hard to deliver but it seems to have taken second place to the novelty of "let's see how much fun stuff a bad Superhero can get away with".
When it gets going though it's well choreographed and full of adrenaline and is really well put together in the computer... but there's no real antagonist for our Hero to get his teeth into (the only genuine antagonist is the story), which to me, is kinda the point of having a Superhero/Superhuman/Hancock style character in the first place.


The acting is definitely the best part of it all though, and even then it's not anything special.
Will Smith as Hancock is wonderfully grumpy and lost when it comes to being a nice guy for a change. He carries the badass side of the character really well too, especially when various crims p*ss him off. He's definitley the best on show.
Jason Bateman is ok as PR man Ray Embry. He seems to have a look on his face as to why he's in such a dodgy story to be honest but he plays the character well enough. There's not a great deal of humour written for Bateman though, which is sad as Bateman can be immensly funny when he's given the right material.

Charlize Theron as Bateman's disapproving wife Mary is ok too. She's a bit quiet at the start but is utilised toward the end quite nicely.

Back up comes from Eddie Marsan and Jae Head, and that's really about it.