And I'm back. Apologies for the lack of updates lately - it's been crazy at work this past week as we are working on a number of big things that will finally come together early next week. All I can say is this: if you're at all into videogames and/or new media, stay tuned on Monday morning!
Anyways ...
- I can't wait for HELLBOY 2. Seeing it tonight, and I can only hope that the film proves to be a resounding success at the box office. From the previews alone, the sheer amount of craftsmanship and imagination that went into the film's production is more than evident. Foregoing an excess of CGI for practical creature f/x, Hellboy 2 looks to be further proof that director Guillermo Del Toro is one of the real visionairies working in film today. I realize that a movie starring a red demon from hell and his band of mutant freaks is a tough sell to some demos, but I'm just glad that at least one comic book franchise isn't worried about toning things down and making things more palatable for a minstream audience. With Hellboy, the more out-there and outlandish, the better, and I love that this movie looks to embrace its stylized-fantasy roots rather than shy away from them. I also realize that the film could get somewhat swamped in the tidal wave of DARK KNIGHT hype, but it could also benefit as fanboys embrace it as a pre-Batman appetizer. I mean sure, DK is the main event, but I can't think of a better opening act. Stay tuned for a full Hellboy 2 review soon.
- And now I will talk about a movie that I wasn't really anticipating, and true to my expectations, it proved to be pretty underwhelming. And yet, the sad fact is that the movie made a lot of money - thanks to all the mindless drones who will line up to see pretty much any crapfest with Will Smith's name on it. And yes, I'm guilty of shelling out the $$$ for this one as well, but the reviews left me feeling really curious to see just how exactly this one went wrong. And went wrong is putting it mildly ... The movie I'm referring to, of course, is HANCOCK.
HANCOCK Review:
- Hancock is a case study in how a movie with a potentially interesting premise can go wrong. What could have been a goofy but fun summer movie instead becomes a complete mess of a film, wildly shifting in tone from one scene to another, with a script that changes its focus so many times that its hard to even describe the movie. The easy sell on Hancock is that it's a quirky, satirical take on the typical superhero story - imagine Superman if he was kind of an asshole who didn't really like helping people and had serious image and PR problems. Okay, that right there is nothing groundbreaking (numerous comic books have dealt with this scenario in the past), but hey, at least its a decent framework for a harmless and potentially funny popcorn flick. The problem with Hancock is that, as it opens, trying to be that goofy and harmless satire - it isn't funny. It isn't clever. And at some point, the producers of the film apparently realized this , because soon enough the movie stops TRYING to even be funny or cute, and decides, all of a sudden, to be a dark and brooding superhero film - complete with sex, violence, and a complex yet nonsensical backstory that comes off like the worst 90's-era Image comics crap one can imagine.
And let me just say - I honestly feel bad for any parent who took their kids to see Hancock thinking that it would be a fluffy Will Smith movie, as much of the marketing indicated. The fact is that that's just what the movie starts out as ... but rarely have I ever seen such a disasterously schizofrenic film.
And it's weird too, because I give credit to Jason Bateman and Charlize Theron, who both really give it their all in thankless supporting roles. Bateman is at first called upon to basically reprise his role as Michael Bluth, which is fine as Bateman does that kind of thing effortlessly. The one or two chuckles found in the movie are all thanks to Bateman's always-great, dryly humorous delivery. When the movie later decides it wants to be a brooding tale on par with The Matrix, however, Bateman's character quickly feels VERY out-of-place. He accepts the twist involving his wife, played by Theron, with almost comedic quickness. And yet Bateman's light-hearted character is then forced to be alternatively brooding, violent, and tragic. It just speaks to the glaring tonal shifts in the script that force the characters to become things they were obviously never meant to. A lot of this is driven by the M Night-style "twist" involving Charlize Theron. It's not really that much of a twist, because for the entire first half of the movie, the camera suspiciously lingers on Theron's housewife-with-a-secret with all the subtlety of a mack truck, completely telegraphing the inevitable shoe-dropping moment. Basically, if you don't suspect that something is up with her character after a little while, then you are likely braindead. And again, Theron does her best here - she acts the hell out of her part. But as with Bateman, what she has to work with is a convoluted and hamfisted mess.
As for Will Smith, he is charismatic as usual, but again, he is stuck with a script that never has a coherant character-arc for Hancock. The logical arc would have been for him to start out as a down-on-his-luck, ill-received superhero and eventually realize his calling and responsibility and transform into a superhero that the people can look up to. But the movie completely loses its focus and gets off-track from its original premise. You can almost see where different drafts of the script were mashed together to form one tattered patchwork of a film. It's light-hearted one minute, deadly serious the next.
And when the movie does get serious, it really becomes groan-inducing. The superhero mythology that the movie cooks up for Hancock is somehow both convoluted and vague. It never really makes any kind of sense, and never gets you invested in the character in the least. Without spoiling anything, I can just say that when Hancock's origins are revealed, they don't fit the character in the least. It's like if Superman's origin was suddenly switched with Batman's.
At least there's cool action - right? Well, not really. The action is somewhat minimal, and what action there is seems so mismatched with the actual context of the movie that you rarely find yourself invested in its outcome. The cliamactic fight scene actually pits Hancock against two horribly-acted, B-List villains from earlier in the film, and requires geeky Jason Bateman to uncharacteristically become The Punisher. The movie does at leat employ some pretty cool flight f/x, but otherwise, it looks mostly bland and uninspired. Director Peter Berg, I have to think, is capable of better.
But really, Hancock suffers most from its total cluster of a script. I can't even really tell if Will Smith is coasting in this one or doing the best he can with the material. All I know is, this is the one Will Smith movie where I would have actually *welcomed* an ill-timed shout of "aww hells no!" This movie is just depressing in its ability to take a decent premise and basically bungle it as badly as possible. Even more depressing is that it wastes potentially great performances from Jason Bateman and Charlize Theron, who give it the old college try regardless. Let's hope that Will Smith realizes what a creative failure this movie is and makes more of an effort to attach himself to better movies in the future. Hancock as is is a textbook example of a blockbuster movie gone wrong.
My Grade: C-
- Alright, have a great weekend everyone! Next week I will really ramp things up, so be on the lookout for a HELLBOY 2 review and get hyped for the beginning of DARK KNIGHT week here on the blog. Cya.
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