So I watched Hancock last Wednesday night but I’m so accustomed to blogging my movie reviews on Monday that I waited. Okay, fine. I’m just lazy. Sorry.
My first inclination was to actually write two reviews for Hancock because Hancock is basically two movies.
The trailer that we all saw and loved represents one half of the movie. It’s a movie about a bum of a hero who falls in with a PR rep who tries to reshape his image to be a superhero that people love and respect.
It’s a well done piece of cinema. Jason Bateman is almost as funny as Will Smith in most scenes and the concept in general is golden.
There are a few more curse words thrown around than I’ve come to expect from a Will Smith comedy, but they are forgivable enough. After all, he is a bum that everyone hates. He can’t start out too couth.
And Will Smith does an excellent job slowly changing his personality over the course of the movie. But, Will Smith always does an excellent job so anything less would have been a disappointment.
After Hancock is all rehabilitated and ready to be a bonafide superhero is when we get to the second movie. The second movie isn’t even hinted at in the trailers so I won’t get too specific about it here.
A lot of other reviews seem to hate the second half of the movie, but I actually quite liked it. The story turns into more science fiction than superhero, and it has some really intriguing concepts that I wish would have been played out a little bit more.
It’s sort of fun to get into any superhero’s origins, and Hancock does so in a very strange and unique way — after he’s already a hero. Instead of us watching him become a hero, we get to see him be one and then backtrack to find out why.
Both halves are the makings of a good movie. The only problem is that they aren’t the same movie. It would even be a stretch to put them into the same universe as two movies (which would have been a much better choice here).
The acting is actually pretty good. Theron, Bateman, and Smith all deliver to the best of their ability and make the plot as believable as it can be given the circumstances. They deserve none of the blame for what ultimately is a disaster of a movie.
The real blame lies in direction and editing. The filmmaking is downright amateurish. The director, cinematographer and editors should all be ashamed of the awesome movie that they ruined.
Though the writing can be partially to blame for the mishmash of a story, a more capable director and more intelligent editing could have made the two halves blend together instead of simply crashing into one another.
Will Smith is Mr. July and a part of me is glad that Hancock pulled down impressive numbers to keep Smith on top. I just wish he would have vetted his director a little better before agreeing to this one.
Hancock is a little like Star Wars. It’s a horrible movie, but the story has a lot of meat to it that isn’t quite fully realized. The only difference is that George Lucas could have done a better job directing Hancock than this guy.
And that’s just sad.
Verdict: D+ Tilt: C