Secret Identity

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I saw a pair of summer movies while up in Cleveland. The second of which was Hancock, the latest from Will Smith. Smith has become synonymous with the 4th of July as he has had several hits open during the holiday. Despite their big box office numbers, most of these movies haven't been what I considered good. Some, like Wild, Wild West and Men in Black II were just plain awful. And I feel Independence Day and the first Men in Black are both highly overrated. But despite that track record, I had hopes for Hancock given I've enjoyed a lot of Will's more recent films and the trailers indicated that this one had an interesting story. Sadly, my hopes were doused and Will continued his run of underwhelming, yet successful 4th of July films.

Based on the trailers and advertisements, the film is about Hancock (Smith), a man with superpowers, but not necessarily a good guy. His rescue efforts are sloppy and he tends to do more damage than good when on missions. Part of this is due to his attitude, while some of it could be attributed to the fact that he's also an alcoholic. When the city of Los Angeles gets fed up with his antics, a PR agent (played by Jason Bateman) steps in to help Hancock with his image. While some of this story seems to be borrowed from The Incredibles, the plot seems intriguing nonetheless.

But for some reason, about halfway through the film, a major plot twist comes into play and the whole reckless superhero storyline is thrown out the window. Once the film transitions to this new plot point, the whole concept of Hancock rehabbing his image is ignored. This could have been tolerated had the plot twist taken the film into an interesting direction, but it doesn't. I wish I could explain it more, but I'd rather not give away this key point of the film. Worst of all, this plot twist is never really explained fully for the audience to understand. Instead, they seemed content to fill the remainder of the film with a bunch of action scenes, hoping the audience would be easily distracted by the destruction and loud noises.

What it boils down to is that the film ends up being like two television pilots put together. Each one provides an interesting beginning to a story, but neither one are given enough time to properly tell that story or provide any sense of closure. I'm not sure why the writer felt the need to make such a drastic change in storytelling, but it doesn't work at all. In fact, this film really fails to tell us anything. It certainly did not tell the story I was expecting. And while it appears to have a message, Hancock does not sufficiently get it across to the audience. Some have said that the film is using Hancock as a metaphor for the United States, but I didn't feel that those themes were drawn out enough (which is probably for the better considering how weary I'm getting of Hollywood feeling the need to add political commentary to every single film that's made).

The acting in this film is sufficient. Will Smith has fun (initially) poking at his own clean cut image by portraying the less-than-reputable Hancock. Jason Bateman also provides a few funny lines that only he can produce; although he's a bit more reined in here than I would have liked. The film could have used more scenes involving him snarking on Hancock's bad behavior. Charlize Theron is also in this (although you wouldn't know that from the advertisements) and is suitable in her role as Bateman's wife. However, even though each of the main stars' performances is perfectly acceptable, it is also inconsequential as most people aren't going to be checking this film out for the fine performances.

Equally nice, but also insignificant is the action sequences. It's fun seeing freeway signs get obliterated or whales tossed back into the ocean, but if there isn't a decent story connecting these action sequences together. If the audience can't follow along with what's happening or if they aren't invested in what happens to the characters, then all the CGI in the world isn't going to save your film.

The door was certainly left open at the end of the film for a Hancock sequel, but at this point, I'm not sure I would be interested in seeing it. I would have to see some significant changes in how the characters are presented and the storyline associated with them before I would be willing to check it out. And given how deceptive the advertising was for this one, I'm not sure I could even trust the trailers to tell me if improvements had been made. Will Smith is usually careful in the projects he picks, so let's hope he either decides to forego a sequel or pulls his weight in order to get a better story written for Hancock's second go.

This movie isn't terrible, it's just wildly disappointing. It showed a lot of promise in its premise and advertising and then failed to deliver on its bill of goods. If you're content on seeing mindless summer entertainment, you'll probably some value in this film. My recommendation though would be to make sure you lower your expectations before checking it out so you won't have the same sense of disappointment I had with it. This is a film that aims to soar through the air, but ends up never leaving the ground. Grade: C