July 16, 2008
Over the July 4th weekend I saw the Will Smith movie Hancock. I was a little iffy on this one; it had been pretty heavily panned.
Don't ask me why, it was a good movie. In most superhero movies, the good guys do everything right, and the public loves them. Anyone who doesn't (like in the X-Men titles) is a bigot of one kind or another.
But what if the hero is a fuck-up? What if his helping made things worse? Would he still be adulated? Or would people on the street call him an asshole?
In Hancock they call him an asshole. Frequently. And quite frankly, he is. But he's a redeemable asshole, and after meeting up with a PR guy (who he saves from a train by chucking his car on top of someone else's, then stops the train causing a derailment) and his son he tries to better himself by voluntarily going to prison on several warrants for destruction of property and the like.
Of course, with the superhero, even a lousy one, out of the picture crime skyrockets. And Hancock is released to help, and tries to act like a superhero. Even puts down the booze. And when he rescues some people without leveling a city block, people actually cheer him.
So yeah, it's a cliche. But it was done pretty well, and you have to love the image of a little kid calling a superhero an asshole to the guy's face.
(Recurring line: "Call me an asshole one more time." People frequently do, with cartoon-violent, humorous results.)
This is a superhero movie, so you're going to need to leave any knowledge you have of physics at the door. Momentum does not exist in Hancock's world, and we are all entertained for it.
There is a bit of a twist, and my explanation turned out to be wrong. There was one character who either got lucky or knew more than he should have. As the movie's main villain he got short shrift on screen time; I think there may be some scenes that explain him better and may help explain is role in the end of the movie. The second half of the movie felt rushed, like the director was under pressure to cut it to the typical 90 minutes, when a 1:45 or even two hour runtime probably would have been better.
And then there's the big issue some people seem to have: The explanation of where Hancock got his powers is lacking, they say. Well, it is. Because he can't remember them. Another character explains to him (and us -- amnesia is a great excuse for exposition) how things really went down, and it makes sense. At least as much sense as a superhero movie makes, anyway.
So yeah, a lot better than I thought it would be. Not as good as Iron Man but about as good as The Incredible Hulk. If you were OK with spending $10 on Hulk you'll be cool with $10 got Hancock. But see it as a matinee if nothing else. And of course wait for the inevitable video game, comic book and sequel.
