‘Big Willie Style’

This summer may as well be called “The Summer of the Superhero.” And everyone seems to be pleased about it. For writers, superhero movies are relatively easy pieces of popcorn cinema, and viewers get a comfortingly familiar story.

But superhero movies usually take the same road, and it’s one we’ve seen over and over again.

 To that end, “Hancock” does a remarkable job of exploring the potential of a story about a man with immortal powers, but ultimately falls short of a complete revision on the superhero movie, preferring instead to dwell within the relative safety of the genre instead of using it as a slingshot to greatness.  

Hancock (Will Smith) is a superhero with a bad attitude – an alcoholic, lazy, poorly mannered man who happens to be able to fly and is impervious to damage. He does rescue people, but does so with a sort of reckless abandon, and incurs the wrath of the people he saves who criticize the collateral damage that often accompanies his so-called “heroism.”

That’s when he runs into Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), a PR agent, who in return for being saved from a train wreck, tries to recreate Hancock’s image. Hancock goes to jail, and when he comes out at the request of the police commissioner, he turns over a new leaf.

Like most Will Smith movies, “Hancock” is ultimately a delivery device for the actor. While the movie isn’t bad by itself, it is Smith who creates a more likeable character than the dialogue would suggest. 

It is Smith that sells the emotion behind the concept as believable and involving when it would have otherwise been unremarkable. The other acting is also good, as Jason Bateman, Charlize Theron and Will Smith manage to balance each other out. The action also sells itself well, oftentimes as much physical comedy and character development as it is the splendor of cars blowing up and trucks being thrown around.

However, the movie dips considerably in the third quarter of its duration, acting too much like the movies it is attempting to differentiate itself from. It is here, in a plot twist that isn’t so surprising, that the audience is allowed to reflect on several plot holes that are never quite resolved.    

“Hancock” never meets the promise that its beginning foretells, and while it resolves strongly, if the film was braver and was willing to be darker, it might ultimately mean something more when it is done.