Anti-superhero fails to deliver

Everyone knows Will Smith as the fun-loving, alien hunting, smooth dude and overall good guy. However, here, Smith plays the alcoholic ‘superman’, Hancock, who is almost the exact opposite of his previous characters. at. He fights crime but really couldn’t care less whether the city is under attack and in general, does more harm than good, leaving a trail of destruction wherever he goes. It’s only when he meets Ray Embrey (Bateman) that he decides to fix up his life by searching for redemption.

When Hancock meets the rest of Ray’s family, including his wife, Mary (Theron), and son, Aaron (Jae Head), there is an immediate connection, on different levels between each family member, such as an awkward disgust from Mary and a lacklustre friendship between himself and Aaron. Yet, this is the one family, in the whole of the United States that actually has some faith in him.

Though Smith’s acting is, as usual, on top form, you never really feel that the character fully understands or takes seriously the fact that he must change. This can only be blamed on time constraints as the film is relatively short at 92 minutes. Using montages, the creators have tried to speed up his journey, but it’s not good enough.

The film partly focuses on Hancock’s past which is done feebly, and amongst this is a poor attempt at a star-crossed love story, which could have been quite successful had they made the film longer and placed more emphasis on it. The numerous sub-plots that are incorporated within the script aren’t given the time they deserve for the audience to connect with, thus the connection between Hancock and Aaron seems unnecessary, and the star-crossed love story is just pointless. All-in-all, it turns the film into a melancholy drama where we have to take Hancock seriously; but there simply is not enough time to make this transition from laughing at him to feeling for him.

Like all superheros, Hancock has to have a weakness. Superman’s is Kryptonite. Spiderman’s is his emotional responsibility; and Batman’s is a bullet, like the rest of us. All of which seems to make sense. The explanation for Hancock’s weakness, on the other hand, is completely ridiculous and annoyingly irrational. What were the creators actually thinking?

From the beginning, there is no sign of a villain, no alien life form, no mutated human who has lost control of their life. Instead there are a few prisoners who think they can take him down, even when they have already tried to do so, and failed.The climax between Hancock and the prisoners is quite disappointing, and if you blink you might even miss it.

Let’s switch to a good note. Smith does retain the sarcastic and comedy aesthetics that we know him so well for, and on occasions he raises a giggle.

Another plus is the effects, which aren’t so much realistic as they are impressively extravagant, such as a fight scene where buildings and roads are crushed, cars are thrown into the air and the weather suddenly changes. Smith didn’t use a stunt double for his ‘flying’ scenes and he admitted in a CNN interview “some of the flying scenes were 40, 50 miles per hour, 60 feet up in the air, so it had me, um, a little, little ... all right I was scared’.

I hate to say it, but the film was disappointing. It started off well, with great promise, but the inane middle and lacklustre end was a let down; who knows the possibilities this film could have reached if it just had the right running time!