Hancock (2008)

 

Will Smith stars as a superhero that everybody loves to hate. He is a parody of Superman who curbs crime but causes more costly damage than the criminals themselves. So many citizens of Los Angeles detest this guy because he just shows no regard for his own actions. So what is up with him?

This movie starts off with Hancock lying down on a public bench; a kid awakens him to stop a highway chase; Hancock repels the kid who then calls him "Asshole". I just want to be frank that I have watched an old film RoboCop 2 and can recall panning the movie for having kids use foul language. In fact this movie makes an overly repetitive use of the word "asshole" to the point that it completely loses its meaning. Plus for Hancock to be drinking in the presence of a minor, is completely abnormal.

 

So this guy Hancock saves this PR agent from a level crossing when his car is stuck in a traffic jam. He is heckled by the crowd for his usual act of damage but is praised by that PR campaigner, who believes he can turn his life around.

 

This movie goes through the length from comedy to drama. In fact, the first half of the film is comical; the second half turns to drama. The moment Hancock turns into a savior marks the moment where we can laugh no more. In my opinion, this movie starts off fresh but soon turns sour when Hancock finds himself in a feud with a woman also born with the same powers.

 

Again in this day and age, this movie has employed heavy special effects, some of which are reminiscent of X-Men and The Day After Tomorrow, where during what I call the "clash of the titans" tornadoes gather for no apparent reason; with the two tearing through buildings and ripping up roads over something I think is completely trivial.

 

Other than that, there have been shots where the computer graphics were poorly rendered, such as Hancock crashing into the roads. Plus I do recall several camera angles looking tilted or unsteady as the cameraman was losing control of the harness. And there have been several shots where the camera is held behind an actor so that a blurred, opaque figure obscures the screen. It is constantly distracting.

I duly think this movie suffers from a lack of coherence: the plot is somewhat loose, and the genre is slippery--from comedy to drama. In fact, Charlize Theron is the woman whose character turns this whole film upside-down. As if her role as the Queen in Snow White And The Huntsman wasn't daunting enough, we have to watch her character in this flick ruin the whole humor and drain it from this movie. This movie is not bad, but it does lose its appeal when the plot is not at all solid.