Review: Hancock

Will Smith is the title superhero, who ain’t no Superman. He’s an alcoholic jerk, who dresses like a bum, doesn’t give a damn, and when he does help out humanity, he gets little thanks in return. Basically men, women, and children all call him an a-hole, rather deservedly. Actually, the reason why he gets no thanks in return (aside from his surly demeanour) is because he tends to be a little rough and clumsy in carrying out his heroic pursuits. In fact, he’s run up a pretty sizeable damages bill with the city (one particularly mishap- one!- causes damages around $9 million!), and the DA wants to put Hancock in prison, somewhat ironically. Enter failing PR man Jason Bateman who wants the drug companies that employ him to do right by people less fortunate, and whose life Hancock has just saved. He has an idea to give Hancock a PR makeover. But in order for Hancock to be once again considered the city’s saviour against criminals, Bateman has the radical idea of having Hancock volunteer to go to prison, to show the city that he’s willing to make things up to them and change his ways. He also needs to go through a few personal changes (like shaving!), and even adorns a new superhero suit. Meanwhile, what’s up with Hancock and Bateman’s wife Charlize Theron? Why are they always so weird around each other? And why does Hancock remember so little about his origins? Jae Head plays Bateman’s kid who idolises Hancock, much to the grouchy superhero’s initial chagrin. Brit actor Eddie Marsan plays a crim with a vendetta against Hancock (and a bad attempt at an American accent), and Donald Gibb (of “Revenge of the Nerds” and “Bloodsport” fame) can be seen in a smallish role.

I approached this film cautiously, as I’m not a fan of most of the current crop of superhero movies, or the standard jocular Will Smith summer blockbuster movie. I’m thoroughly sick of (and at odds with) the notion of subverting/reinventing the superhero movie genre, trying to demystify and humanise comic book characters seems such a pointless pursuit to me. It rarely works for my money. Why remove the very things that make these films what they are (and what have proven to work!) and replace them with mopey characters, endless dialogue, and other sorts of tedium? What’s super about that? However, this 2008 Peter Berg (“Very Bad Things”, “Friday Night Lights”) action-comedy, decides to have a little fun with the idea of what if the hero in charge of saving humanity was a careless, grouchy drunk?. For once, I was mostly able to go along with it (cute musical cue lifted from “Superman”), surprising the heck out of me. I really was worried about this one, especially since Smith can be a bit aggravating and hokey in action/comedy mode (I hate the “Men in Black” films, and the “Bad Boys” films, I also hated Smith in the otherwise OK “ID4”), and the trailers made it look far too much like a Will Smith summer blockbuster. As much as I’m not keen on the reinvention of the superhero movie (“Superman” still stands as the best superhero film of all-time in my view), I don’t like the idea of ultimately succumbing to the Big Willie Style formula, either. Thankfully, Smith gives one of his better performances, playing his arsehole character to the fullest extent, rarely trying to make him terribly likeable or exuberant, which is as it should be. There’s very few goofy catchphrases and ‘Will-isms’ here, folks. Here he’s totally uncommunicative, uncooperative, selfish, and with barely a glimmer of humanity to him. Basically, it’s Smith subverting his own usual likeable screen persona (A persona I liked on TV’s “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”, but have since grown tired of).

I would’ve liked them to go the whole hog with profanity and sex and all kinds of debauchery (I’ve heard the original script went in this “Bad Santa” sort of direction), but we’ve got what we’ve got, and this is a better example of demystifying or reinventing the superhero movie than most before it. That’s not to say that this film isn’t fun too, I mean for me a superhero movie has to be fun, which is why “Batman Begins”, “The Dark Knight”, and especially “Iron Man” failed to work for me, they were mopey and tedious. This film gets the balance a lot better, and never quite goes into Frank Capra schmaltz or Slick Willie Style like I was dreading it would (though the film’s climax nearly does, I forgave it because it was such an unusual and ballsy conclusion to a superhero movie). Or to put it another way, it’s the movie “Men in Black” should have been (“Men in Black” was all weirdness and no entertainment, in my view, it should’ve been much more mainstream, oddly enough).

Thank God for Jason Bateman! In this film, from his very first scene, Bateman is hilarious and a good part of what nearly makes this film a success. The romantic angle with Theron starts off being way out of line (hey, she’s a married woman, dude! Hands off!), but the twist with this aspect, is actually the film’s best idea (despite a few confusing and unconvincing things), and probably the only interesting thing about her character at all (Aside from one good teary moment, she’s pretty much coasting along here). Some have said that the twist was obvious, but I was expecting a different (more conventional) twist, so I was surprised at where it went. I did think that making Hancock be more than 80 years old was a big mistake, it leaves too many questions unanswered (How long has he been an a-hole? How long has he been a crime-fighter? How long have the rest of human society been aware of his existence? None of these questions are answered!). And while I’m talking about questions here, is Hancock bullet-proof or is it just his new suit that is bullet-proof? The film never really makes that clear, and if it’s the suit, that’s kinda silly given it’s man-made. If it’s Hancock, then why does it look like it’s the suit? Weird. The film also desperately needs a solid supervillain, with Marsan’s small-time thug not at all up to par, and that’s a big deal too. Here’s an idea, get Eddie Murphy to play a super-rich, super charming villainous counterpart to Smith’s cranky, derelict-looking but ultimately well-meaning superhero Hancock, kinda like “Trading Places”, but without the race angle and superheroes instead. Hmmm, better copyright that idea... Meanwhile, there’s a dumbarse prison fight in which the prisoners are either incredibly dumb or incredibly forgetful (Why are they fighting a superhero? No way they’re gonna win that fight!).

The film isn’t as good as it could have been, but is quite considerably better (and a bit less sanitised) than I was expecting. Scripted by Vincent Ngo and Vince Gilligan, began by Ngo back in 1996 (!), and later rewritten by Gilligan (who apparently worked on the sometimes excellent TV series “The X Files”). This one is disappointingly close to getting a recommendation, but a few things hold it just narrowly back.

Rating: C+