The uber geeks

Movie Review: Hancock

Fourth of July is here again, and what better way to welcome in the long weekend than with Mr. Fourth of July himself; Will Smith. As far as studios are concerned, Will Smith is the king of the box office. His last seven movies have all grossed over $100 million without so much as breaking a sweat, and has 11 total that have reached that mark. He’s the closest thing to a sure-fire hit Hollywood has. Hancock is positioned to be his eighth consecutive hit and give him his 12th $100 million movie. But does it even deserve to be?

As of this review, Hancock is at 34% on RottenTomatoes.com. It’s another Wild Wild West sized misfire for Will Smith, but it’s not his fault. Will Smith plays the title character, a superhero who destroys more in the process than he saves. Smith is as charismatic as he can as an alcoholic, jerk of an antihero here. Jason Bateman plays the PR agent who tries to change Hancock’s public image, and is hilarious — for the most part. Charlize Theron seems out of place here. There are moments where everyone is cracking jokes and having fun, while she’s being overly melodramatic.

As the previews show, the special effects are great. Seeing a superhero fly drunk through the sky, blowing up everything he launches from and tossing whales into the ocean is a blast. Aside from that, it’s your standard superhero CGI fare. There is a scene in particular that was way too overdone. It felt out of place in the movie and looked awful. I don’t care how much time they spend on a scene, but a fully CGI character’s movements will always look fake. It’s noticeable and detracts from the movie. One of the action scenes got to the point where there were no actors. Just CGI storms in the background and CGI characters. It felt like a cartoon and stood out like a sore thumb.

Hancock has some hero-sized problems in its plot. I was really into it for the first 35 minutes. I was beginning to wonder what everyone was talking about and why it had such a low rating. And then, it happened. The movie shifts gears. It starts out as a vulgar, satire of the superhero and has some good laughs. But really quickly, it hits the breaks. The laughs slow down and the jokes get recycled. They replace the mean, aggravated Hancock, with a wooden, reformed Hancock. Maybe I’m a callous, sarcastic jerk of a human being, but I liked Hancock more in the beginning when he was an asshole.

From what I’ve found out, Hancock went through six cuts just to get its PG13 rating. And that’s a shame. They shot a different ending, cut a bunch of scenes (including a statutory rape plot point), and dubbed over a bunch of the dialog. It runs a short hour and a half, which is probably due to all the cutting. It feels rushed and completely uneven. The movie doesn’t know what it’s trying to be. In a time when a superhero movie comes out every weekend, it could’ve have been a refreshing take on the genre. But, no. It’s like the studio heads saw the original cut, got scared, and turned the entire second half of the movie into generic swill, complete with terrible twist, goofy ending and throwaway dialog that attempts to explain bits and pieces of the movie (unsuccessfully I might add).

I can’t recommend this one at all. It just misses every mark it set out for itself. If anything, look for it on DVD if they release an uncut version. But what does it matter what I say? It’s Will Smith, Fourth of July weekend, so people will go out in droves to see it anyway. Go see WALL-E or Wanted instead.

Here’s a spoiler filled take on what Hancock should have been: 9 Ways Hancock Could Have Been A Pretty Good Movie. I have to agree on nearly every point he brings up.

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