Will Smith is back to prove he is the King of July 4th, but going to his new movie, Hancock, is like dating Britney Spears. TOO MUCH DRAMA!
Smith stars as Hancock – a superhero who drinks too much and causes all sorts of havoc when he tries to save the day. It has gotten so bad, people hate him and don’t want his help if robbers need to be stopped or people must be saved from danger. However, Ray (Jason Bateman) is an idealistic public relations expert who wants to help Hancock change his public image and get his life back together. Can Hancock deal with what has been eating at him all of this time? Will the public give him a second chance? Unfortunately, Hancock is a movie caught up in between trying to be a superhero movie with epic scope, AND trying to be a heartbreaking story about a lonely damaged man AND trying to be a goofy comedy to make us laugh during the holiday weekend. Hancock suffers as director Peter Berg and his writers Vincent Ngo and Vince Gilligan try to do too much and fail to clearly define what the movie is supposed to be. Hancock only succeeds at being a comedy and we don’t get enough laughs. It’s like a song that can’t find its rhythm as we get bored and confused with the developments that come after the comedic part of the movie we enjoy. As Hancock goes deeper and deeper into drama territory, the acting performances suffer, especially Bateman who seems lost in the movie’s huge climax, and we get stuck with twists and turns that border on being a bit silly and definitely are contrived. This leads to Hancock being two different movies. The first part is the crowd pleasing movie you expect and you can enjoy Smith showing us the more comical troubles Hancock faces and his acerbic reactions, which contrast nicely with Bateman’s bright eyed optimism and can-do attitude. However, the second half of the movie is a mess as we learn more about Hancock’s origins, while Berg and team try to promote the drama, which doesn’t have great impact. It's like the story is grafted onto the end, instead of feeling like the script worked up to a natural twist. Hancock won’t make you feel like you wasted your time and money, but it’s more like Smith’s less enthusiastically received July 4th movie Wild Wild West rather than a classic like Independence Day. Hancock is rated PG-13 for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and language.
