Hancock

I have to apologize for my tardiness over this last week... so many movies to watch and just not enough time to view them all. I'd be seriously considering, as a means of penance, to review several "time" related movies in the near future.

Meantime, we're reviewing a movie I happened to pick up on the TV last night, an old favorite, even if it is a little goofy; Hancock, starring Will Smith, Charlize Theron and the ever immortal and yet, somewhat vanilla, Jason Bateman.

This movie revolves around our eponymous self-titled character, John Hancock, a man who hates himself more than others do, and what makes it even more strange is that this guy has super powers: invulnerability, flight, super speed, super strength, and so forth... And while he does fight the good fight against criminals in Los Angeles, he does so at the cost of infrastructure, people's personal property, as well as in one case, the life of a whale. Hancock, played by Will Smith, takes on the services of personal relations consultant, Ray Embrey, played by Jason Bateman, much to the disdain of wife Mary, played by the incredibly dazzling Charlize Theron. Additional hijinks occur with the discovery of a secret within the Embrey family and the need for revenge by three of Hancock's lock-aways in prison.

The movie has astounding special effects but as I said just a moment ago, it can get a little goofy... I honestly thought there would be more chemistry between Theron and Smith's characters, because they seem to steal every scene they're in. Bateman is vanilla, but seems to ooze a boyish kind of charm, like a boy scout who never grew up. This guy has hardly aged a bit since his days in The Hogan Family...

The movie starts off at a reasonable pace, but then ramps up way too quickly towards the end; I figure it could have slowed down a little more and as a result would have been a better movie by incorporating a little more storyline. Will is funny, in an anti-hero sort of way, non-flirtatious, which was perfect for this role. I think Peter Berg, the director was trying to cash in on a similar tangent to Robert Downey, Jr.'s portrayal of Tony Stark from Iron Man, but intentionally turning off the charm switch to get a low-esteem version of a superhero. He succeeds in doing this, but he doesn't overdo it. This movie gets 3½ stars for a great movie, but failing to provide a fuller sense of what this movie could have been if it had pushed harder.