Thursday, July 10, 2008

Hancock

B-. [Spoilers] In the order they occur to me now: 1) Upgrade the villain. Not exactly Eddie Marsan's fault; he really doesn't have any good lines, and the devil always should. But why settle for a poor man's Hans Gruber? 2) Recast Mary (Charlize Theron). She's too hot to begin with, so you can't pull the old glasses on/glasses off! makeover trick. Maybe Jennifer Garner, but she's awful pretty too. And she's already played married to Bateman (Juno) and costarred with him in a (far superior) Peter Berg joint to boot (The Kingdom), so I give myself a C- for originality. 3) While I'm psyched that a first-time scriptwriter with a great idea got a movie made, it shows. There's unfinished business everywhere, e.g., the relationship with the little boy could pay off so much more, the therapy sessions sputter out, and, uh, so Hancock would rather keep his super powers than experience the "joy" of natural love and mortality? Okay, I probably would too. But in service of exploring the concept more fully, I would have gladly sat through 30 more minutes.

Bottom line: great idea, mildly executed, Bateman saves the thing.