Will Power

It’s a good thing that Will Smith wears sunglasses for a large part of Hancock, because if he didn’t, we’d see him winking at us. Will Smith: blockbuster actor or master con artist? He’s the latter, since with average performances and storylines, he rakes in the big bucks. I walked out of Hancock realizing that I’ve surrendered my pocket money to him countless times--I even saw I, Robot in theaters! Yet, none of his movies is going to change your life for the better. I would liken most of his movies to a third slice of pizza—completely palatable but totally unnecessary. Like that last slice, you’re not really sure why you gave into Hancock.

I must preface this entry with the fact that I have never bothered to try and see Ali or The Pursuit of Happyness. Arguably, Will Smith was giving cinema and acting a good honest try with those movies, and not trying to con the audience. I don’t know whether or not that reflects badly upon me....

Hancock starts off as an interesting take on the superhero movie. Hancock, blessed with basically 90% of Superman’s powers (minus the eye lasers and maybe some others), is a drunkard who happens to save the day sometimes, though at the price of destroying LA in the process. We catch on that his inebriation level contributes to his less-than-smooth landings and the obvious lack of follow through in his strategizing. In this day and age, superhero movies are all about elaborate action sequences where not only does the superhero manage to think everything through, but they also account for all spontaneous disasters with quick adjustment in their pace, hand eye coordination, and perhaps an impromptu prop. So, it’s very novel to see Hancock stop the train, only to cause a 24-train car pile up behind it.

Halfway through the film, however, it is blatantly obvious that the writers of Hancock ran out of coffee or ideas, or maybe even both. Their “explanation” for how and why Hancock came to be is just flat out lazy. By presenting the most vague reasoning possible, the writers sort of trail off and try to distract the audience with another action sequence. It’s not the best ploy ever, but they knew that Will Smith is a master con artist and that it would probably end up just fine. By “just fine,” I mean a weekend gross of 60 something million and over 100 million for the entire long weekend. Though, the question is whether or not gentle warnings, like mine here, will deter prospective audience members.

Jason Bateman is amusing as always. Charlize Theron plays the token hot woman role well enough. I think she was also meant to serve as part of the pyrotechnics to distract the audience from the “plot holes” that the writers weakly fill. Hancock is a decent summer movie but, like when you reach for your last slice of pizza, you should think long and hard before taking a bite.