Shawn's Hancock Review

2008 Movie #79 - Hancock

I kept going back and forth about whether or not I was excited about this one or not. I do like Will Smith, so it had that going for it. However the trailers didn’t do a whole lot for me. Then the reviews started coming in. As a result I let this one go ignored for the most part of July, seeing it in the end almost entirely because it was leaving theatres the next day. In the end, I’m not unhappy I waited this long to see it, although it was a little better than I thought it would be.

The main problem with this movie is that it is just trying to be too many things at once. I’m all for a totally original superhero movie. There’s no need to stay loyal to the source material to please fans, you’re free to just do whatever the hell you want. They really missed an opportunity with that though. They could have gone any route they wanted, god only knows why they chose the one they did. This definitely feels like an R rated movie that was toned down to be PG-13. There also feels like there are just huge sequences missing as the movie (especially the last third) feels disjointed and just all the fuck over the place.

I will say though that the first half of this movie is quite good and I really wish they had kept the same tone throughout. It has a darker sense of humor with Will Smith cursing out citizens and generally being a dick. We’ve seen the reluctant superhero before but never quite to this extent, so I enjoyed it. However once Hancock decides to turn his life around, the movie also turns itself around…but to face a shitty direction. That was terrible I’m sorry, but you get my point I hope.

At this point in the movie we get into the origin story, which is pretty lame actually. It’s one of those “wow, really?” kind of moments, but not in a good way. Then of course we get the pointless plot twists and then the movie kind of just stops. There has to be stuff missing and if there is an unrated cut of this movie when it comes out on DVD I will definitely be checking it out because I have to believe it would be an improvement.

The action in the movie is decent, if not a little by the numbers. The action scenes are definitely entertaining, but they’re not anything that special at the same time. The humor works in the beginning when Hancock is in his hostile mood, but as mentioned earlier the humor takes a back seat in the last half and the movie suffers for it. It just doesn’t do drama so well.

So Hancock kind of works as a comedy, kind of works as an action movie, and doesn’t really work as a drama. So as a result, it only kind of works as a good movie.

** ½ / 5