Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Hancock
I have been a fan of Will Smith since I was in the 3rd Grade and he was The Fresh Prince putting out Hip Hop CDs with Jazzy Jeff. I've enjoyed and appreciated the majority of the work he's put out (except for maybe Wild Wild West). So when I saw the preview for Hancock on YouTube about half a year ago, I already knew I was going to see it.
I am also fond of Jason Bateman's comedic timing (Arrested Development anyone?), and have an undying crush on Charlize Theron.
With all this promise behind it, I didn't really enjoy this movie. I should have taken a clue from the advertisers and movie makers to refuse billing Charlize in the commercials that there was something up. Some big secret that she also alluded to in a recent interview I read a couple months back.
I'm not going to discuss the big "twist" in the film, even though I saw that twist coming a mile away. I will say the actors did a great job. The problem I have with the movie does not lie with any of their performances. It's with the story and director. There seems to be a lot of potential in the story but the whole thing came up a bit short for me. I can only point my finger at the director and screenwriter because I believe that's where the issue lies. I can't really pinpoint where exactly in the story things could have been corrected but there was a certain point in the film, once the twist was revealed, that the whole thing became this formulaic shmaltzy predictable thing. I stopped feeling riveted by the unraveling of events and it started just being more and more convenient.
Sure, it's a movie about a superhero so how believable can it be? But I'm referring to the choices made by the writer to tie it all together. I can't get into too much more detail about this without going into detail about this big twist.
Other than that, I did find myself enjoying the majority of the film. The acting didn't let me down. I appreciated the overall story idea and concept. A self loathing alcoholic superhero is just funny. Will Smith was good casting in this. I just wished I'd have gotten more from this two hours. It seems that like with The Happening, the buzz and ad campaign for the movie was more hype than the movie can live up to.
Then again, the movie was at 60 something million opening weekend....
If I had stars, I'd give this movie 2 3/4 out of 5.
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