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'Hancock' can't decide what movie it wants to be

By Robert W. Butler, McClatchy-Tribune News

Will Smith plays a superhero who has issues in 'HancocK,' opening Friday. STUDIO

Hancock ** ½ – Rated PG-13 for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and language; starring Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman; directed by Peter Berg; opening Friday at University Place 8 in Carbondale, Illinois Centre 8 in Marion and Grand Theatre in Du Quoin.

What does "Hancock" want to be when it grows up?

Superhero comedy? Social satire? Tragic love story?

They all swirl around in Will Smith's latest, but no sooner does director Peter Berg's film find a comfy rhythm than it jumps the tracks and becomes a different movie.

That pain in your neck is cinematic whiplash.

The first hour is a diverting inversion on the usual superhero cliches.

We first see John Hancock (Smith) sprawled on a bus stop bench, surrounded by empty liquor bottles. He appears to be homeless.

A boy approaches, pokes the snoring, unshaven (and probably smelly) Hancock and informs him that a dangerous high-speed chase is wreaking havoc on L.A.'s freeway system.

Hancock is not happy to have been awakened. Harsh comments are traded. The kid stalks off after calling Hancock a word usually reserved for the last stop on the digestive tract.

Hancock takes a long pull on a bottle of hooch and then rockets into the sky, leaving a crater in the sidewalk. He does capture the miscreants but only after doing millions in damage to private buildings and the public infrastructure. That's what happens when you fly drunk.

The notion of a surly superhero who'd just rather be left alone and has no memories of his origins isn't precisely original (Wolverine, anyone?). But because this is Will Smith, quite possibly the most likable leading man in movies today, we can look upon Hancock's bad attitude with amusement.

Hancock's fortunes begin to change when he's adopted by Ray (Jason Bateman), an idealistic and underemployed public relations guy. (Possibly Ray's principles are a drawback in his line of work.) Hancock saves Ray, whose car stalls in the path of an oncoming freight train. Ray responds by volunteering to turn around the flying slob's miserable public image.

He even brings Hancock home to meet the family - his son (Jae Head), who is delighted to make the acquaintance of a notorious celebrity, and wife (Charlize Theron), who hates the superhero at first sight.

There's some funny stuff here as Hancock has to play humble in accordance with Ray's rehabilitation program. He's told he must learn to control his devastating landings, since the touchdown is his "superhero handshake." He even agrees to serve a jail term for destruction of public property. Ray figures that the crime rates will soar without Hancock to keep a lid on things and that the police will soon demand his release.

In fact, it works. The new Hancock is clean-shaven and unfailingly polite. Ray even replaces Hancock's thrift shop wardrobe with a form-fitting leather outfit more appropriate for a superhero.

And then, at the one-hour mark, the script drops one of the coolest reveals of any movie this summer.

I won't ruin it for you. Let's just say that nobody will see it coming and that it opens up entirely new possibilities for the film's second half.

Possibilities that, unfortunately, go unrealized.

Rarely has such a good premise so quickly run out of steam.

Vy Vincent Ngo and Vince Gilligan's screenplay tries to explain Hancock's history through an elaborate (and yet underdeveloped) mythology. They introduce the idea that he has a long-lost paramour with whom he has shared centuries of love/hate romance.

And almost none of it works. There's a lot of bashing and flying. Oil tankers are tossed about like Tinker toys. Tornadoes develop over downtown Los Angeles (what's that all about?). It's chaos, not clarity.

The mood of loss and sacrifice the film seems to be going for never gels. What's worse, it's totally at odds with the iconoclastic humor of the first hour.

Having painted itself into an inescapable corner, "Hancock" quickly ties up loose ends and waves goodbye. No doubt this was a result of some frantic editing - the movie originally came in at two hours, but 30 minutes were chopped after negative responses from test audiences.

"Hancock" is intermittently amusing and ultimately puzzling. Not even Will Smith could pull this one out of the fire.