Hancock
So tonight Beccy, Rachel (Beccy's friend) and I went to the cinema to see the film Hancock. It has been widely publicised as a satirical and slapstick superhero movie in which a depressed, alcoholic and unpopular superhero, John Hancock (Will Smith), meets a Public-Relationship manager, Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman) who vows to repay him for saving his life by helping him to rebuild his popularity which he correctly diagnoses as partly the cause of his depression.
The film starts by following this premise to good effect but it quickly runs out of steam and, in what seemed to be an attempt to save a floundering script running fast out of material, the writers take a step too far in creating the all important twist. Unfortunately what could be a great comedy; the conclusion of Hancock misses the point completely. Disappointingly when it could end on a far more mature note like Be Kind Rewind or even Click the plot leaves the characters fatally under developed and the viewer feeling confused amongst a mish mash of new story lines introduced late into the film. Once it had gone that way the story was impossible to bring back to any kind of meaningful cadence. It is almost, as Beccy said, as if it were originally a much longer film but in order to keep the running time under two hours the creators were heavy handed with the editing.
It wasn't all bad; Smith was intimately believable in his role but he couldn't have done it without great performances from both supporting actors; Bateman and Charlize Theron (also starring). By finding a sincere connection on screen they enabled Smith to become much richer in his character. Despite being propped up by the actors' abilities and some great special effects I have to say that it is not really worth a visit to the cinema and not really worth a place in your LoveFilm.com list.
I'd give it an overall 4 out of 10, first half; full marks, second half; not so good.
The film starts by following this premise to good effect but it quickly runs out of steam and, in what seemed to be an attempt to save a floundering script running fast out of material, the writers take a step too far in creating the all important twist. Unfortunately what could be a great comedy; the conclusion of Hancock misses the point completely. Disappointingly when it could end on a far more mature note like Be Kind Rewind or even Click the plot leaves the characters fatally under developed and the viewer feeling confused amongst a mish mash of new story lines introduced late into the film. Once it had gone that way the story was impossible to bring back to any kind of meaningful cadence. It is almost, as Beccy said, as if it were originally a much longer film but in order to keep the running time under two hours the creators were heavy handed with the editing.
It wasn't all bad; Smith was intimately believable in his role but he couldn't have done it without great performances from both supporting actors; Bateman and Charlize Theron (also starring). By finding a sincere connection on screen they enabled Smith to become much richer in his character. Despite being propped up by the actors' abilities and some great special effects I have to say that it is not really worth a visit to the cinema and not really worth a place in your LoveFilm.com list.
I'd give it an overall 4 out of 10, first half; full marks, second half; not so good.
posted by Simon @ 10:39 PM
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