Hancock (2008)

I like a good superhero movie. Unfortunately, this isn't a good superhero movie. I often listen to and read the buzz on interesting upcoming movies and one of the things I heard about this film is that they were doing reshoots and re-edits a few weeks before the release date. That doesn't bode well for the film. I don't know whether this was done on the feedback from focus groups or not but it does hint that either the script wasn't up to snuff or they were backing out of some tough moments in the film.

The story is pretty simple, at least before the twist. Hancock (Will Smith) is a drunk superhuman. He's invulnerable, stronger than a freight train and he can fly like a Kryoptonian and doesn't give a shit. After saving PR wizard Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman who steals the film and is, in a lot of ways, the heart of it), Hancock is encouraged by Ray to reform his image. He spends time in gaol due to the charges made against him by the owners of collaterally damaged properties he wrecked while performing his tipsy heroics, gets a makeover and bonds with Ray's family, particularly his young son Aaron (Jae Head), if not his wife Mary (Charlize Theron) who is inexplicably hostile toward him.

Without going into spoilers, you don't have to be Jim Rockford to figure out that Mary and Hancock have a history together.

The big problem with this movie is that it starts out as one thing, phases into another darker area, then backs out of it at the end of things. There are logical inconsistencies to the characters (except Ray), way too much unexplained and it simply shrieks out for a decent script doctor to come along and fix things before filming commenced. I think the makers of this film fell in love with the concept of a drunken superhero and didn't have a good place to go with it from there. The special effects (supervised by John Dykstra) are excellent but overall I see it as a wasted opportunity. It could have been much more than it was, but using William Goldman's three step movie quality guide* this one falls into the third category.

* Goldman's rating are that there are three kinds of films. The first is the film that aspires to excellence/quality but fails, the second is the film that aspires to excellence/quality and succeeds and the third is the film that was never meant to be excellent or of quality at all. This is definitely the third kind: a cash cow movie.