This film gave me a headache.

Rating: 4/10 (6 January 2009)

Hancock - The streets of New York are simultaneously protected and suffer the excessive collateral damage done by Hancock (Will Smith), a none too nice and largely ineffective superhero. He saves the life of a similarly ineffective (though is not presented as so) personal relations agent named Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman) who is so grateful that he dedicates his career to improving Hancock's image, despite the lack of any real fiscal benefits from doing so. But Embrey is one of those humanitarian P.R. reps you read so much about, whose pitch to the corporations always seems to involve them giving away their products for free. They unsurprisingly decide to do otherwise.
The first thirty minutes or so of the film are decent enough. It's mildly amusing to watch a superhero that genuinely doesn't seem to give a crap about anything. Hancock causes a tremendous amount of collateral damage. But if he ultimately doesn't care about people, then why try and help at all? Hancock is supposed to be an "asshole", but comes off as just morose. Smith's been playing that a lot lately and judging by the box office receipts, it's what people want. The film could explore why Hancock feels he owes anything at all to these people. It does not. Note to filmmakers: Never make a superhero without motivation.
It's when Hancock voluntarily goes to jail that the film slants into place getting ready for a tremendous nose dive. It becomes boring (superhero sits around in jail = fun movie?) and changes from a comedy to a drama, a critical mistake partly because the writing of the second half is seriously lackluster. The other reason is the special effects are just not good enough for a dramatic film. They come off as cartoonish. Things disintegrate on impact far too easily like there was nothing holding them together in the first place. If Hancock has the mass and strength to stop a train without any recoil and makes craters on landings (inconsistently for comic purposes I suppose), then shouldn't the mere act of walking or running around cause mild earthquakes?
I mentioned the second half of the film. It absolutely sucks. I was having a migraine trying to figure out what was going on with Charlize Theron's character, and her's and Hancock's back story in general. The whole thing doesn't make a lick of sense. There's just a series of fights for absolutely no reason other that to satisfy action junkies. This is the first and hopefully last time I ever see Jason Bateman take part in an action sequence. Hancock really felt rushed, I assume because the call of the July 4th box office. Money beats art any day of the week. The producers of Hancock know this, and Bateman's character should have known it too.
Boring and rushed in appearance and execution, Hancock gets a D+