"Hancock" (2008) - Movie Review

“Hancock” which is advertised as comedy superhero film and even Wiki saying so are misspoken both by the film makers and the site. Having Jason Bateman and Will Smith with a comedy action they have often portrayed, that notion deceives and in fact proves fatal to the film. It is obviously a super hero film but the hilarious scale is not a ruling theme. This is a very serious look on a self loathing and underappreciated power man for most part of the movie. He sighs and appears without any empathy well before and after his publicity aider Ray (Jason Bateman) comes.

Unlike fictional cities, Hancock (Will Smith) resides in Los Angeles. He sleeps on street benches drunk and hung over being waken by a small boy to stop crime. His crime stopping is a damage invention without any strain. He destructs highway road signs and buildings like a regular human being would permeate through a cardboard box. He is clumsy and it can be mostly associated to his unstoppable alcohol intake. In another costly save of a civil man, Ray the publicist gets acquainted and sees beyond the stern faced and careless super hero. He invites him to his house where he is disdained and doubted by Ray’s wife Mary (Charlize Theron) and it appears that she might have more than an opinion created by his action and media.

Ray in his big “hearted” attempt on changing the world takes up Hancock as his personal marketing campaign and comes up with a better strategy. Generally in grumpy mode, Hancock is pulled back by Mary’s untold tension to take up this offer. Theron and Smith embody this unseen power of attraction inhibited in between them to make us think stuffs as an outsider would look at. And Bateman’s Ray in his naïve loyalty and happiness does not see through. What happens in the next half hour is not important rather the history which unravels after that between Mary and Hancock is the subject which tries hard to stand out in this flurry of super hero movies.

Summer action super hero movies are dime a dozen. While “Iron Man” did its charm, “The Incredible Hulk” is a show to forget. The biggest awaiting film of the year personally would be “The Dark Knight”. But in this crowd also comes “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” whose foundation I have not seen jumps and peeks out its head. Clearly the viewers are divided in two, one relishing this overabundance and other getting tired of it. It is the trend as one would put it to dig the gold and collect it as much as possible. But in it dies the uniqueness and left is the stereotypic caricatures fading further and further with every film. “Hancock” while is a step above in terms of material and attempt is the first victim of boredom.

Hancock is one of his kinds and he abuses that power. Once the history is revealed out of the couple, I was wondering what drove Hancock to alcoholism. Bateman’s Ray initially gives single line advice points as a shrink on as an attention seeker failed in his attempts. The coming high actions are then substituted and used for amnesiac blanket over the audience. Coming out of the theater it would be discovered that nothing greatly explains his recklessness. The idea is to give a feel on untold psychological troubles in a man mighty to do anything he wants. It germinates into something else which is also equally intriguing but the film pulls the screen down before that.

The predominant idea in a film of concentrating ultra powerful personalities is the discovery, application, misuse, recovery, near death and set up for sequel. And Hancock mixes it up with lost for identity, self pity, unknown forces, and discovery but obviously cannot escape from set up for a sequel. The best thing about “Hancock” is the absence of alter ego. He is a known man secluded by the society not of his powers but behaviour. It is a wonder on that what would be the purpose of living in a situation like that. He has omnipotent ability to take what he wants and be what he wants. He can roam around the world visiting all the incredible tough places. He can start a space travel and check out what is there beyond the last known planet and the space-time continuum. But Hancock got to be sober to do all that.

It is a strange feeling to be indifferent. And it is challenging to express that with lot of words. Peter Berg with jittery camera movements he employed in his previous action film “The Kingdom” and which we have seen in The Bourne series uses in “Hancock” too and it is out of place on occasions. It is a film with good ideas undernourished in screenplay. If there is a “Hancock – 2” in development, I would not be surprised, in fact it would do lot of justice on creativity basis to this character. It is contradiction in the statement made couple of paragraphs before on the countless invincible heroes but Hancock deserves one and may be he might be able to tell us the regularity of being a super hero without any job (eliminating the people saving business) and challenge. Do not jump on with a hat of condescend to say “boring”, you will never know!