‘Hancock’ Reviews Not Looking Too Good
A friend happened to catch an advance screening of Hancock recently and sent over some thoughts. I’ve been looking forward to Will Smith’s latest big summer movie, but my friend, Laura, came away none too impressed.
Here’s what she had to say:
It was disappointing. During the first half hour I had some high hopes, since the movie seemed to be bringing up all these interesting themes about what it means to be extraordinary, and have that extraordinariness isolate you from everyone else. Not to mention all these Ayn Randian ideas about how the un-extraordinary people (the looters, I guess) act as though they have a complete right over the talents of the extraordinary — they take it for granted and make bitchy demands of it, even though it doesn’t belong to them.
But then the latter half of the movie pretty much crapped all over its own promising beginnings, and ended up bringing up all this random shit that didn’t really get worked out. I was annoyed, and wouldn’t recommend seeing it.
Knowing almost nothing about the movie ahead of time, I think I let my expectations balloon up during that first 45 minutes or so — so if you go in not expecting more than a mindless fun ride, you might not be so disappointed. But even with adjusted expectations, I’d be surprised if anyone walked out of the theater all enraptured with it.
In case you think Laura might just be a Debbie Downer, the hate is coming for Hancock from plenty of others too. My favorite headlines so far: ‘Hancock’ a Super Zero and ‘Hancock’ is a Super Mess.
We’ll see if this leads to a spate of "Leave the comic book movies to comic book people" stories.
"We'll see if this leads to a spate of "Leave the comic book movies to comic book people" stories"I certainly hope not. There are always going to be hits and misses. That doesn't mean that people should stop trying.If people gave up so easily just because of bad reviews or movies, then nothing would be made period.
I hope you're right, but I could see comic book folks taking a bad outing from Hancock and using it as ammunition for a little turf war.
Based on what I've been reading, the thing that turned me off was the whole "lost love" subplot (which I'll not go into detail on) that makes the film turn on a dime. If it had STAYED about a bum superhero who tries to redeem himself, it probably would work better.But it's Will Smith, so I don't forsee a bad first week. The man's got enough charisma to carry about anything.I want him to play Raffles. Or any sort of Gentleman Thief in the "It takes a thief" mold. He would just kill.He was supposed to be in the Charade remake with Thandie Newton. Oh god what a missed opportunity.