hancock

Y'know, generally I write these film reviews some time in advance. Generally speaking, I watch my rental DVD over the weekend and then on Monday one of the first things I do after writing Monday's blog is write the film review.

Partly this is because it helps the fresher it is in my mind and partly it helps me to know I have at least one pre-written thing for the blog should things get hectic. Occasionally, however, I struggle to write the review and things get a bit more condensed.

That's basically what's happened here. I'm a little unsure quite what to say. You may have noticed I often try to include non-sequitors in my reviews. Points that seem random but then generally come back to have some relevant meaning.

Clearly the opening of this review is just such a non-sequitor bit (actually I was going to go on about what Hancock means and how we use John Doe more in this country, but everyone knows all that by now, right?). I'm kinda doubting it will come around to mean anything, though.

The trouble I've been having is I have quite mixed feelings about Hancock.

While I was watching the film I quite enjoyed it. Or at the least the first half was enjoyable. The idea of a superhero that's a self-hating bum is intrigued. A hero who tries to help people but either makes a bit of a mess of it or causes untold damage that's not really necessary is a great hook.

The idea of a PR man who comes in to improve the hero's image is a clever satire and the idea that the noble hero falls in love with another man's wife is also very intriguing.

The problem is that things go distinctly pear-shaped in the second half. The problem is that they kinda back themselves into some corners, story wise, that then need explaining away.

The next bit is very spoiler-heavy, btw, so you may want to stop reading.

So basically one of the problems is that the PR man is a genuinely nice guy. He has this campaign all about big companies helping people out - social responsibility and all that.

How the hell he became a P.R. guy and he keeps his job, I've no idea. But the knock on effect is that it makes Hancock seem like a real piece of shit.

When he's making a balls up of everything and beaming mean you still kinda like him from a lovable grouch / unfortunate looser / misunderstood hero point of view. When he's putting the moves on another man's wife - a nice, decent man who has also helped Hancock - he's just a shit.

So they resolve this with a really great twist - she (Mary) has superhero powers too. Only that's not the resolution, the resolution is that somehow Hancock and her are a matched pair (eh?) who are kinda fated to be together (er, okay...) and are drawn to each other (hmmm...).

And it makes it a bit rubbish - who really believes in fated loves? There needed to be something more substantial - something tangible for why he and her start to fall in love. The twist wouldn't have seemed so random then.

This "lack of evidence" is also a problem when Hancock is in jail. It's one thing to have a news report saying crime is up; it would have been another to show us more of this. Yes, there's the bank robbery, but an escalating crime wave needed more back up than this one incident and a news report.

Also again, the 'evidence' is a bit wobbly in some other stuff too - Hancock and Mary cancel each other out (huh?) when they get close. Oh, but it's meant to happen slowly and it happens quickly here - I mean, why bother even adding that as it just makes it seem even more random :/.

Also the idea that they've both been around for thousands of years is just not sensible. They try to say they're angels, but the powers they display aren't exactly very angelic.

You see what I mean? Why I struggled to write it?

It didn't really even work as a parody of the bizarre stuff that happens in comic books.

I've a bucket-load of criticisms of the film, but I equally keep coming back to the fact that while I was sat there watching it I enjoyed it a great deal.

The gags are good, the performances are good and the effects are some of the best I've seen, but the logical flaws in the plot undermined a lot of that.