Review: 'Hancock' brings new hero to comic book scene

Directed by: Peter Berg

Starring: Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman

Rated: PG-13

Even comic-book giants Marvel and DC Comics have never had a hero quite like the one played by Will Smith in “Hancock.”

This guy makes Peter Parker (Spider-Man), Bruce Banner (The Hulk) and Tony Stark (Iron Man) seem well adjusted. The writers, Vy Vincent Ngo and Vince Gilligan, and director Peter Berg add to the mix with situations that have always crossed the minds of superhero aficionados but rarely broached in print or on film.

Hancock is some sort of mutant who got amnesia many years ago and can’t remember where the heck he came from. He’s also an alcoholic, a curmudgeon, self-centered, irascible and constantly being derided by the public at large.

He tends to wreck things – trains, highways, whales, buildings – in the course of saving lives or fighting crime. And people let him know. “You could have just flown straight up and not done all of this damage,” is a typical piece of not-so-friendly advice he gets from a less-than-grateful bystander. And the cable news channels portray him as a menace, reckoning the damage he has committed to be in the billions of dollars.

Hancock, like the best of companies that are destroying things around the globe, has one crucial need: A press relations pro. And he gets one in Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), an ad man with a big heart who is saved one day by Hancock.

Ray says Hancock needs to get his image together and make people want him. So, he convinces our hero to own up to the property damage, take some jail time and make his absence make the public’s heart grow fonder.

Hancock goes to jail and crime begins to rise, and people do begin to care, and Hancock softens up a bit. Not much, but some.

The previews for the film made it seem like a superhero comedy, and the first two acts are. It’s a clever, engaging setup, and there’s enough action to satisfy the folks who require a lot of action.

The problems begin in the final third of the film when Ray’s wife, played by Charlize Theron – great in the role, as she usually is – reveals a very big secret. Theron is an actress so strikingly beautiful that sometimes people don’t notice how strikingly talented she is. So if the third act takes some of the fun from the film, it isn’t her fault. Nor is it Will Smith’s. He’s as engaging an actor working today.

But one gets the sense that too many studio executives had a say in how the story was going to play out, and that is always a bad a idea.

I can recommend “Hancock” for fun, action, excitement and cleverness. It’s fairly kid-friendly (PG-13), but there is a lot of mayhem going on throughout.

The summer of 2008, with “Iron Man,” “Wanted,” “Kung Fu Panda,” “Get Smart” and now “Hancock,” might be the best blend of big box office and good filmmaking we’ve seen in many a summer season.

Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield freelance writer and musician. He can be reached at info@wunderlesound.com.[[In-content Ad]]