Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. We have a pair of reviews below for HANCOCK, one a reader review and one from our own Downunder Wonder Latauro. We'll see how it evens out, but neither one loved the movie (though Latauro seemed to ultimately enjoy himself) and the final review is pretty damn harsh. I hope it's at least fun, but if we had to have a big geek movie stinker I'd rather it be HANCOCK and not something like HELLBOY 2 or THE DARK KNIGHT. I think I may be seeing this at the end of the week. I'll let you know what I think when I get to it! In the meantime, here's Latauro to kick things off!
I'll tell you this much: it's a very satisfying movie.
You're going to come out of it feeling like you've just spent a worthy ninety odd minutes in a cinema. I know that shouldn't sound like high praise, but I've sat through a few too many eye gougers this year, and any movie that makes me glad I made the effort has automatically done its job.
Part of this is to do with the fact that this is the exact right perfect time for this movie. This is a time where the general public is so used to the idea of superheroes and origin stories that a -- let's face it -- largely unknown character like Iron Man can still draw people in because they understand how it all works. It no longer matters if they have a childhood connection to the character, or he's steeped so deeply in pop culture that everyone kind-of remembers what his symbol looks like. The Superhero Movie is a genre unto itself, and Hollywood is now in a position to start its postmodern examination of its characters.
Just as twenty odd years ago the comic book industry was ready for "The Dark Knight Returns" and "Watchmen", the movie industry is now ready for HANCOCK and, well, WATCHMEN. From the very opening of HANCOCK, we're shown the equation without any unnecessary fanfar: our world + superhero = this movie. Got it? Good. HANCOCK, shockingly, treats the audience with some respect, which is one of the reasons that the first twenty minutes or so is so damn flawless.
I'm actually going to start talking about Jason Bateman first, because to me, this film was as much about his character as it was about him. Bateman has shamelessly stolen nearly every film he's appeared in recently (which is particularly good news if you're sitting through MR MAGORIUM wishing something would come along and entertain you...). JUNO (as with "Arrested Development") managed to avoid this by somehow finding actors who operate on the same level. There's something great about seeing Bateman interact with the Charisma Force that is Will Smith, especially when Smith is doing some of his best blockbuster work in a long time. Looking back over Smith's filmography, I'm surprised to discover that the last film of his I truly enjoyed was MEN IN BLACK. (It says something for the man that he can keep appearing in films I dislike and I can keep citing him as an actor I love.) Similar, the oddly underrated Charlize Theron takes a role that could have so easily been utterly ridiculous, and grounds the slightly-silly plot developments through sheer force of, well, talent.
The problems with HANCOCK are also its strength. It suffers from having too many great ideas. Highlighting this is the fact that these great ideas are realised really well. The concept of a superhero who answers to no one? Tick. A superhero willingly submitting himself to jail and self-help groups? Tick. The story of redemption? Tick. All of these "what ifs?" are handled with expertise. The only thing that lets them down is that they seem to jump too quickly from one to the another. There's not enough bridging work. Like the DVD you're watching it on randomly skips every sixth chapter.
That's the only thing that stops this Very Good Movie from being a Great Movie. Well, actually, I had some problems with the score. Most of it is excellent (kudos to the John Williams SUPERMAN throwback), but far too many scenes feel as if composer John Powell was constantly being given the note: "It's good, but can you give it 70% more whimsy?". It's a bit too light in scenes where it shouldn't really be light, and it's more of a distraction than it should be. But, like I said, most of it is excellent, and, as should always be the case, the excellent parts are the parts you don't usually notice.
HANCOCK is, like its titular character, not without its flaws. (Oh, snap! Can I have a job now, Variety?) It is, however, very, very good, and it's not going to leave your head the moment you leave the cinema, like so many other big films. At a time where blockbusters suffer from easy dismissal by being wedged between other blockbusters, HANCOCK actually benefits from squeezing between IRON MAN, INCREDIBLE HULK and THE DARK KNIGHT by sort-of cleansing the palette and showing you these guys from a different point of view. And for that reason, love it or hate it, it's a film that's definitely worth seeing.
Peace out,
Latauro
AICNDownunder@hotmail.com
There are more spoilers below than above. Be warned, fair reader!
Hey Harry, This is my first time contributing to this site, but have been a reader for many years. You can call me panic1983. I live in Toronto and won tickets to see an advance screening of Hancock tonight. I'm trying not to include spoilers, although I really want to spoil a lot so that people can avoid the inevitable douche chills this film commands. Let me start this review by saying that this movie was one of the biggest pieces of shit I've ever seen. This is a new low even for Will Smith. The makers of this film took a potentially cool concept and ruined this by trying to make it a comedy. I understand why Will Smith was cast ($$$), but couldn't they have cast an actor that isn't so clean cut. Will Smith's acting like a "bad ass" is laughably bad. I understand the decision to cast Smith in this role ($$$/Summer Opening) but couldn't a less "clean cut" actor have taken on this role? The pacing of the film is poor at best, with an antagonist that has zero character development thrown in for a very cliched and boring ending. We don't even see the "villain" of this film until a little over the halfway point in the movie and then he reappears for two more scenes. The attempts at humor in this movie are really sad too. The repeated jokes in the film (ie "asshole") aren't even funny the first time. I predict that this film will have a pretty strong opening weekend and like the first Hulk film, will die off pretty quickly. A very forgettable superhero film in a summer packed with really strong takes on the genre. This entire film gave me equally as many douche chills as the emo scene from Spiderman 3. keep up the wicked site harry!
