The gag that Hancock is a bum superhero lasts for a minute. Then the movie falls apart. The core of the film is bad. At the heart of the film is a detestable figure, Hancock, a broken down, drunken superhero. When he attempts to help others he ends up destroying everything around him. He's a self despising klutz with substance abuse problems. Who wants to watch that? Think of it this way, if this were a white character and not black, the lead would have been played by Larry the Cable Guy, not Will Smith. This is trashy stuff dressed up nice.

The film suffers because it can't decide if its serious, half-serious or a completely frivolous. In one of the early scenes Hancock is approached by a beautiful groupie. He takes her back to his trailer (told you this was meant for Larry the Cable Guy) and they have sex. The "joke" turns out that when he culminates his intimate efforts his semen shoots out like a bullet (told you this was trashy). This isn't funny, but this is the joke they decide to work with. Director Peter Berg (The Kingdom), like his audience, fails to find anything funny in the scene and lets it play itself out, the woman runs away in fear, with no humor or any deeper meaning. As crude as this scene is, I think it represents how the entire film is mishandled. Odd items or situations are broached and then played out but done so without an ounce of depth. This leaves Smith and the rest of the cast stumbling through scenes that do nothing but clumsily push the plot forward. By the end of the film the film has languished in toneless scenes for so long, so many times, the resolution is D.O.A. The final act seems more like a cleaning up than a resolution.

I like Berg's previous films, I think Smith is one of the better matinee stars working, but this film is an unfortunate misfire.


Related Reviews:
Will Smith movies
Pursuit of Happyness (2005)
I am Legend (2007)


Other Critic’s Reviews:
Film Critic's United
Film Freak Central Reviews

Labels: Charlize Theron, film, Jason Bateman, movie trailer, Peter Berg, superhero, Will Smith