‘Hancock’ Review

Hancock (12A)

Cast: Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman, Eddie Marsan
Director: Peter Berg
Running Time: 92 minutes

Yet another superhero film of summer 2008, but this one is a little bit different from the others that we’ve seen.

Hancock is about low life ‘John Hancock’ (played by Will Smith) who just happens to be a superhero. He’s always drunk and really doesn’t care what the public think of him. Whenever he ‘helps’ the people, however good his intentions may be, he just ends up making things worse and causing millions of dollars of damage to the city. The public start to turn on him and basically want him out of their lives and a warrant is sent out for his arrest for damages to the city!

Upon saving Ray’s life (Bateman), he finds a second chance to recreate his image through Rays PR skills, much to the annoyance of Ray’s wife Mary (Theron). Ray tells Hancock to lose the attitude, the homeless guy look and the drink, and do his time in prison to show that the public need and want him back.

Whale tossing, throwing a child bully 30,000 feet in the air are just some of the hilarious things that Hancock does. Smith is awesome as always and has some great one liners that had everyone is the cinema creasing up with laughter. Even Charlize Theron gets in on some of the action and at times steals the limelight from Smith.

There aren’t that many actions scenes in this film as the story is mainly about Hancock trying to find out who he is, and changing his image. But the ones that are there are great fun to watch.

One of them being when Hancock first reveals himself with his new image at a bank robbery with a bit of a superman theme in the background and constantly reassuring everyone by saying ‘Good Job’. It just shows that he’s awkward with his new image, but trying to change and Smith pulls it off brilliantly.

The first three quarters of the film is more or less a comedy. It’s not until near the end when the story gets serious and you see the emotional sides to the characters and their weaknesses. But I thought this was a good thing and brought something different to the film. Most people are going to see it thinking that it’s just going to be funny all the way through, and then when they see the more serious side, they get disappointed.

I thought the way the ending was handled was done really well. I’m not going into too much detail as I feel it will give away some surprises, but I thought it was quite original and a nice change from how other superhero films are done.

Hancock is a great film and I highly recommend going to see it.

4 out of 5

Ender

Related Pages:

1. ‘The Dark Knight’ Review
2. ‘Iron Man’ Review
3. Toy Story 2 3D Review
4. ‘Toy Story 3D’ Review
5. ‘Wanted’ Review

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