Hancock

Rating NR Formats DVD Genre comedy Starring Will Smith, Jason Bateman, Charlize Theron Directed by Peter Berg Publisher Sony Pictures

When you think of a super hero, what comes to mind?  Spider Man? Batman? Those are only a few of the infamous heroes who swoop in the save the day.  They’re applauded, thanked, and fanned over by every leading lady in sight.  They must be doing something right.  So what the hell happened to Hancock? Superheroes are supposed to be heroic, brave, and fearless individuals who do anything to protect others, right?  Well, Hancock (Will Smith) a superhero living in Los Angeles, is not exactly up to par.  He’s rude, insensitive, harsh, and doesn’t care when he pisses people off.  Plus, he’s a drunk.  Hancock’s well-intentioned deeds save lives all the time, but he always seems to leave extreme damage behind. He has wrecked cars, trains, highways, even buildings in order to save the day and once cost the city nine million dollars in damages.  And now the people of L.A are finally fed up.  Hancock isn’t one to care what anyone thinks about him, but when he saves Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman) from getting hit by a train, he thinks about changing his ways.  

Ray, a PR consultant, makes it his duty to work with Hancock and persuades him to update his image in the hopes of winning over the people in his community and to really show them a superhero.  The more time he spends with Ray and his wife Mary (Charlize Theron) the more compassion he starts to reveal.  But, once Hancock realizes he’s not the only one of his kind, trouble turns his makeover into a meltdown.  

Smith plays a believable bad-guy-gone-good and has good chemistry with Bateman on screen, but I found myself confused.  I thought the film was about a drunk guy with super powers.  Once they took out Hancock’s mean-streak, it just wasn’t as interesting. Charlize Theron’s character wasn’t anything to write home about, but she does reveal a surprise I wasn’t expecting.  A lot of the special effects were dull and I felt a little ripped off on more than a few scenes.  For example, Hancock picks up a car with one hand, but we only get to see the car being raised and not him actually holding onto it.   He also throws an object at a criminal to chop his hand off, but we only hear the object hitting the hand and don’t get to see it.  Lame. 

It’s a good thing Jason Bateman is funny.