Review: Hancock

Hancock begins by telling the story of John Hancock (Will Smith), a superhero whose deeds to society are not appreciated because of the destruction he causes in order to do the right thing and how he becomes accepted by the public with the help of Ray (Jason Bateman), but half way through the film changes it's plot and becomes a lot more complicated and unnecessary.

Hancock starts out as a very good film, and the first half of the plot is a good idea with lots of potential, unfortunately this potential is not unleashed and makes the film seem to cry out for acceptance of being a landmark film (much like the character of Hancock who also secretly cries out for acceptance). But in no way is this a landmark film, it's enjoyable to say the most but because of a massive change in the plot and because the film combines a lot of genre's it never really knows where it's going, only where it started.
Watching this film it seems more of just a good idea that the audience should like because it combines a lot of popular modern culture, everyone loves Will Smith and superhero films are big at the moment, surely combined they should do excellently.........Unfortunately not, maybe if Hancock stuck with being an idea of a superhero who is hated and just made a consistent story to go with that people would love it for it's idea, but to see a good idea be spoilt by a mix of comedy,action,romance, thriller and fantasy does not work.

The second half of Hancock decides that the film has to go somewhere, and it does go somewhere it just trails off in many different direction to try and reach the ultimate goal of Epic but gets completely lost on it's search for it.

One thing i did enjoy about Hancock is that Jason Bateman put on a good performance and was by far the best actor in the movie, i could never call Jason Bateman's performance monumental in any way at all, but this is partly because the character he played was very average with no room to show off a monumental performance but enough room to show off that Jason Bateman can indeed act. Will Smith on the other hand pulled off a dismal performance, and there were not much points that i believed that Hancock was an alcoholic bum with superpowers, which may sound like a hard part to play but in truth is exceedingly easy. Will Smiths acting did help to turn what could of been a great idea into a misled flop.

With a lack of Jason Batemans character Ray, and Will Smiths poor performance the second half of the film appears dull, and seeing as the film has already completed what it's initial plot was it's very easy to lose interest and feel like you're sitting through an hours worth of deleted scenes.

Hancock tries so hard not to be an utterly terrible film that it takes no risks and winds up being dull and average and if you're going to watch Hancock, make sure you enjoy the first half because the rest of it loses it's humour and ruins what was a good idea and turns it into a lost script which puts too much on it's plate but doesn't even attempt to deliver that plate!



Rating: ***/*****
Reason to watch it: So that you can turn it off half way through
What it needs: Consistency, to take it's initial idea and keep it going without losing audience interest
Sequel: Never, why grind an idea with lots of potential down even more so that it loses all hope of being any good
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