Now, I know a lot of people really like Will Smith. Who wouldn’t, with mega rap hits like ‘Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It,’ and fan pleasing blockbusters like ’MIB 2.’ But it seems to me that he has a bit of a Messiah complex. And his big studio cronies will pretty much do whatever he wants because a movie starring Will Smith has like, a 50% percent chance of being in the top 100 high grossing films ever (see: I Am Legend, Men in Black, Independence Day, etc., etc.).Hancock seems to be just an excuse to let a Smith be Superman. Another movie where he saves the world! But not the Superman we all know, this is the BET version, complete with horrible one-liners and everything! Remember on the trailer where the little kid tries to alert Hancock to the bad guys, and he responds, ‘Whatchu wan? A cookie?’ That’s about as good as the scriptwriting gets…sorry Smith fans.
Hancock is directed by Peter Berg (the guy you can thank for bitchin' hits like 'Smokin' Aces' and 'Corky Romano'). Even coupling the actions scenes with chart topping hits like, ‘Move bitch, get out the way’ fail to bring any sort of emotion to the viewer. Now, not everything was so bad, Jason Bateman plays Ray, the guy without character flaws who just wants to save the world and believes so much in Hancock that he uses his PR skills to change out Los Angeles sees him (I’m not sure why though, the sober Hancock is even less fun than drunk Hancock. His comedic timing is spot on, just like all his other endeavors (bring back Arrested Development!) .
Charlize Theron plays Ray’s wife Mary, who spends a lot of time gazing at Hancock with a worried look…might she have something to hide?! We all know she has the chops to deliver a solid performance, but maybe she was as bored with the script as I was and played Mary with such lackluster, I was actually entertained at how little she seemed to care.
There are some plot developments, twists we’ll call them (although they’re not really interesting enough to be called twists, more like little bends in the plot line) that aren’t completely obvious, but aren’t really engaging either. If you’re dead set on watching this movie as most Smith fans will be, see this while it’s still in theaters, I shudder to think how even more deeply underwhelming it will be on your 32′ TV.
Rottentomatoes: 37% - Cream of the Crop: 38%
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