July 4 blockbuster 'Hancock' fizzles

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BY L. KENT WOLGAMOTT / Lincoln Journal Star

For about 30 minutes, “Hancock” is the perfect antidote to the glut of superhero movies that have filled theaters this summer — a biting satire with Will Smith at his best, playing a drunken, destructive superhero who’s more hated than beloved.

But then the movie takes a hard turn that pulls it back into the genre and the fun disappears, replaced by sappy, dull nonsense.

That veer to the inexplicable and conventional makes “Hancock” one of the biggest disappointments of the summer movie season.

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Will Smith (right) and Jason Bateman are shown in a scene from "Hancock." (AP Photo/Columbia Pictures, Frank Masi)

Will Smith (right) and Jason Bateman are shown in a scene from "Hancock." (AP Photo/Columbia Pictures, Frank Masi)

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 But because it’s Smith and the Fourth of July, “Hancock” is a sure-fire hit, likely headed for the $100 million range its first weekend, providing further evidence that box office success has nothing to do with a picture’s quality.

Smith plays Hancock, a down-and-out Los Angeles superhero who we first see passed out on a bus stop bench. Rousted by a kid, he grabs a bottle and goes airborne to put an end to a police chase of an SUV loaded with bad guys with machine guns.

Flying through birds and sending feathers flying, then careening drunkenly into the car, Hancock tortures the bad guys like a cat with a mouse before doing millions of dollars in damage by slamming the SUV down on the needle atop the Capitol Records tower.

That kind of behavior is standard operating procedure for the foul-mouthed, anti-social Hancock, who cares about nothing except where his next drink is coming from. That makes him the most troubled and reprehensible of all superheroes, providing much room for satire and many laughs.

That opportunity continues after he saves the life of public relations man Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), whose car is stuck on railroad tracks with a train bearing down. Hancock flips the car in the air, smashing a couple of other vehicles, destroys the locomotive and derails the train. That earns him boos from the crowd, until Embrey thanks him for saving his life.

The rescue inspires Embrey to try to help Hancock change his image. The first step in the plan — to have Hancock turn himself in to police, who have warrants for his arrest for property destruction and assorted other missteps. Once again, a superhero in jail could make for a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, that’s when “Hancock” shifts to a genre movie and starts to spin out a standard tale of rescues and heroism while explaining his life story and, importantly, the connection he feels when he meets Embrey’s wife Mary (Charlize Theron).

That exposition makes almost no sense and strains credulity, even for a superhero picture. It also sets up a self-sacrificing heroic ending that is pure cliche, turning “Hancock” into the very picture it started out satirizing.

It’s hard to blame anyone for this mess but Smith, who chose the project and is one of the film’s producers. His acting is good, as usual. But he is far better than the material provided in the wobbly script. The same can be said for Theron, as she joins the growing legion of serious actors making money in comic book movies.

Director Peter Berg, who made a solid genre picture with  “The Kingdom” and the excellent sports drama “Friday Night Lights,” does his best to keep things together here and makes great use of computer-generated effects, especially early on when Hancock is at his most destructive.

But once the picture turns toward sappy convention, all the flying and fighting tricks can’t save “Hancock” from the cliched palaver that sends it crashing like the drunken superhero falling out of the sky.

Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.