Zachary FenellHancock
February 24th 2009 16:19
Hancock, 2008
That's what Hancock is like. I know that a lot of people had some issues with it, and I don't blame them, but knowing just how hobbled Will Smith was in the making of this, the end result is brilliant. It's not like we've never enjoyed movies that suffer from this problem: I still like the story of Star Wars despite the deplorable writing (excepting Empire Strikes Back, which was my favorite AND had the best writing). I enjoyed Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter despite the lack of any sort of real production value. What Hancock was missing was... the rest of the story.
I think.
Thinking back over it, it's sometimes a little hard to put my finger on exactly what the problems with the movie are. The gratuitous "hard living" scenes, the over extended fight scenes, and the weird ham-handed over-statement of powers versus lack of compassion... yeah, those would be it, more or less. I think I also had a pretty serious issue with the blind ignorance of the public reaction.
But if you step to the side of all of that and really look at the story without the "eggs", you have something pretty remarkable and very enjoyable. Hancock is a parable for what each of us has to go through as soon as we recognize our own power or genius. We have to decide if we're going to use our powers for good or not, and just how selfish or selfless we can get away with being before our nature - malicious or benevolent - wins out. I loved the mythological angle, and I adored the play of power between the two of them at the end.
All told, it wasn't a great movie, and I totally agree with Will Smith for getting so pissed off at the studio. I can only hope that he has enough of the cuttings to put together the story that he really wanted to tell (because remaking your own movie? ... yeah, not so great, ask Lucas).
3.5 Stars
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