Hancock flew into theaters on July 2, 2008, a $150 million superhero film with Will Smith in the title role and a problem it never solves. The man can fly at supersonic speeds, cannot be killed, and drinks in public. Los Angeles hates him. The movie can’t decide if that’s a tragedy or a punchline.
Trailer, via Sony Pictures Entertainment.
John Hancock Wakes Up Alone in 1931
Smith plays an amnesiac, alcoholic superhuman whose first memory is waking in a hospital in 1931. He has no past and no manners. He saves Ray Embrey from a train, then derails the train. Ray, a struggling public relations specialist played by Jason Bateman, offers to fix his image. Hancock’s early scenes are the film’s best: ugly, funny, and specific about a hero who is mostly a nuisance.
Ray Embrey’s All Heart Plan
Ray’s idea is a PR stunt with teeth. Hancock apologizes in public and surrenders to local authorities, betting the city will miss him. It works. Crime rises in Los Angeles, and Hancock returns in a leather suit to end a bank robbery shootout, slicing off Red Parker’s hand before he can use a dead man’s switch. Eddie Marsan plays Parker. The public applauds.
Mary Embrey Has Powers Too
Then Charlize Theron’s Mary, Ray’s wife, turns out to be Hancock’s ex-wife with the same abilities. Close together, they weaken. The film’s tone breaks here and never recovers.
She knows who she is and what she is capable of.
A Superhero Film Rated PG-13
Columbia released Hancock after the Motion Picture Association of America requested changes to avoid an R rating, which the film had received twice. The compromises show. The premise is promising, but the mid-movie shift sinks it.
Will Smith at Supersonic Speed
Smith was suspended by wires 60 feet above the ground and propelled at 40–50 miles per hour to sell the flight. It looks fine. The script is the problem, not the effects.
- Director: Peter Berg
- Writers: Vince Gilligan, Vy Vincent Ngo
- Runtime: 92 minutes
- Worldwide gross: $629.4 million
The Fourth Highest-Grossing Film of 2008
Hancock made $629.4 million worldwide, the fourth highest-grossing film of 2008. Money is not the same as quality. The first act earns its premise; the second act abandons it for a mythology nobody asked for.
4.9 of 10
The story sat in development hell since 1996, passing through Tony Scott, Michael Mann, Jonathan Mostow and Gabriele Muccino. What finally got made is a 92-minute film that spends its back half explaining itself. Hancock is worth watching for Smith and Bateman, and worth remembering as a cautionary tale about a good idea with no second act.
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