DIRECTED BY: PETER BERG
STARRING: WILL SMITH, CHARLIZE THERON, JASON BATEMAN, EDDIE MARSAN
WITH great power comes … no responsibility. That could almost be the tagline for this loopy, deranged, tonally schizophre
nic superhero movie, which by all accounts has been transformed from a much darker script into something with more obviously banal mainstream appeal.
The resulting mess stars Will Smith as John Hancock, an alcoholic asshole-of-a-hero who may have the powers to save someone from a burning building, stop a freight train in its tracks and halt a guns-blazing bank robbery, but is just as likely to swear at kids, threaten violence against women and toss around casual racial epithets to anyone who interferes with his hangover-seeking ways.
A boozer and a loser, his sozzled Superman schtick is costing the city of Los Angeles a fortune in repair bills and his couldn't-care-less attitude towards crime-fighting has made him public enemy No 1, with the city's residents more inclined to sue him than thank him for his reckless and reluctant efforts at protection.
That starts to change when he saves the life of Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), an ethical PR consultant whose own efforts to save the world, Bono-style, aren't bearing much fruit. Ray reckons he'll have a much better shot at making the planet a better place if he can persuade Hancock to live up to his potential, and so he tries to persuade him to ditch his homeless fashion duds, give up the drink and do some time in the clink in an effort to both demonstrate a little contrition to the public for his past wrongdoings and take him off the streets to make the city realise just how much it needs him.
It's here that we lurch into a completely different type of movie. What starts off as a thoroughly groan-worthy superhero parody – one that brings back unfortunate memories of Uma Thurman-starring flop My Super Ex-Girlfriend and features surprisingly cheap-looking effects – soon morphs into a much more serious and self-important film as Hancock starts coming to terms with who he really is and Ray's wife Mary (Charlize Theron) starts moving centre-stage in the story.
This is where the film's big twist comes in. It's also where it begins to change stylistically, resembling, of all things, Michael Mann's film version of Miami Vice. Hand-held camera shots, tight perspectives and guitar-heavy soundtrack intermissions start to dominate and the climactic scene is even a direct lift from Miami Vice's hospital-set coda, even starring Vice bit-player Eddie Marsan. That Miami Vice is a bit of a touchstone probably shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, given that a) Mann is also Hancock's producer; b) he has a cameo role in the film; and c) his prodigy Peter Berg (The Kingdom) directed it. But any artistic credibility this approach was intended to provide flies shakily out the window like its drunken hero thanks to the jarring tone it creates with the goofier, more family-oriented stuff shoe-horned in to encourage parents – particularly American parents going to the movies over the 4 July holiday weekend – to take their kids to see a blockbuster about a troubled and abusive alcoholic.
What was the studio thinking? And what was Will Smith thinking? There's no disputing that Smith is a great movie star or that he has good comic timing or a decent dramatic range as an actor. But his appeal is based on his remarkable ability to make normal guys seem extraordinary. He's so good at it, in fact, that he can even turn an incredibly bleak and depressing film such as I Am Legend into one of the biggest box-office hits of all time.
That's just what he does, and audiences across the world respond to that and love him for it. But put that formula in reverse, give him superpowers and then ask him to locate the ordinary flawed human being lurking within, and all his appeal suddenly evaporates.
It's a shame, because there are traces of a more daring and more entertaining film here, one that might have worked better had all involved kept their nerve and skewed the film a little older instead of chasing the Spider-Man audience. It will be interesting to see if Smith's reputation will be enough to see Hancock through once word gets out about how unsuitable it is for kids and how little of it works for adults.
Watching it actually reminded me of The Last Action Hero, another high-concept blockbuster that started life as a smarter, genre-satirising script until some bright spark decided to turn it into a half-assed Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle. That film turned out to be Arnie's first big flop and marked the beginning of the end of his film career. For all the super-hero shenanigans on display in Hancock, the overwhelming question it leaves you pondering is: just who is going to save Will Smith?
The full article contains 844 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
