Giving Bill W a Run For His Money
Hancock (C+)
So tell me, what exactly would you do as a fallible non-super person who one day woke up and had super powers? It’s a question we’ve probably all thought about at one time or another. Now, I am not talking about the magical comic book reality but in really real reality. You know, in a nation led by Bush! Would you drink and carouse and let it all go to your head? Better yet, would you understand the consequences your actions may have on the lives of the people around you? Would you or could you even grasp the nuances of your affect on society or the world as a whole? If you dig really deep and ask yourself these questions honestly the answer would most likely be a great big “I don’t know”. And THAT my friends is why superpowers are best left to morally centered superheroes in comicbookland.
Hancock, wonders how the world would work if a superhero’s actions had real life consequences, territory that has thus far never been mined. Of course in real life, we would probably hunt down the character of John Hancock and kill him. That’s what we do – we seek out those who are different and punish them. In today’s world, it wouldn’t be an angry mob charging down Main street with pitchforks and shovels and torches. It would be giant multinational corporation seeking to find, exploit and ultimately destroy the powers Hancock possesses. That’s what they do – that’s how corporations work. You don’t get to be a CEO by being a dynamic smart and creative person. You get to be a CEO because the bureaucracy in your corporations weeds out the smart, the creative and the dynamic until the only person left standing is usually the shoulderless conforming self-defeating “winner”. You literally have to be an idiot to successfully climb the corporate ladder.
To some extent Hancock is effective. The scruffy title character has been sued more times than a tobacco company. He is a drunk. He’s a homophobe. He’s a womanizer. In other words he’s a Grade A super dick. The film gets itself into trouble when Hancock starts to clean up his act. There is some “comedy” to be had and Smith seems to travel a road we’ve already been down with Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Let’s watch the tough guy attempt to find the woman within! Pure comedy gold! Also there is the disturbing element where by film’s end, the Fresh Prince starts to look more like his wife (Jada Pinkett Smith) than himself. It’s creepy in a Michael is starting to look more like Janet kind of way.
Still, I give them credit for trying something new. In a way it’s the kind of superhero movie I always wished to see and now that I have seen it I understand how misguided I was in wishing upon a star to begin with. It’s not a breath of fresh air but it’s just this side of acceptable if you want check your brain at the door for a nice climate controlled matinee. Oh and what’s my super power wish? I have thought long and hard and the power I wish I had (aside from, you know, living forever) would be the power to magically flick the cameras out of tourist’s hands who incessantly take flash photography in places where they are repeatedly told not to. Just picture all those cameras sitting at the bottom of Pirates of the Caribbean in Disneyland. It’s the little things in life that make me happy.
Tags: film
