One Hancock review we can sign on for

By Steven Zeitchik

Here's a sentence we don't write every day. God bless Manohla Dargis.

The critic most likely to comment on physical appearance than arguably any reviewer in history first turned it around for us when she and A.O. Scott sent out lukewarm vibes for Clint Eastwood's morally reductive "Changeling" at Cannes. And now she continues a streak of contrarian courage with an endorsement -- with a few caveats, but an endorsement just the same -- of Peter Berg's (and Vince Gilligan's, and Akiva Goldsman's, etc) "Hancock," a refreshingly unconventional superhero movie whose very virtues seems to be vexing some filmgoers. Someone at our media screening said "it's a little weird, isn't it" as she walked out, which we interpreted to mean 'It didn't follow a good guy-bad guy formula we've seen in endless movies in the genre.'

Dargis is no such filmgoer; she gives the film its props, and then some. "'Hancock' makes for one unexpectedly satisfying and kinky addition to Hollywood's superhero chronicles. Touching and odd, laden with genuine twists and grounded by three appealing lead performances...there’s a real jolt in the choking, splenetic exhaust of a disgruntled blockbuster anti-hero."

Certainly the movie has its flaws, and some of the exposition is silly, but overall it's the most interesting take on the genre in years, admirably free of superhero cliche. It's character-driven, which is already a pleasant surprise right off the bat, and it has little of the obvious and forced villainy that so many of these movies -- including the overrated so-called superhero movie of the summer, "Iron Man" -- mechanically trot out. Hancock is really a lot more about a man's war with himself and who's he expected to be than it is a war with any Lex Luthor/Riddler type character.

As Peter Berg told Risky Biz in an interview "Although it's a superhero movie at its core, it's about a man seeking redemption, a man looking to tap into a higher version of himself, disguised as a superhero movie." That's the best cape of all, and Manohla, well, she looks great in it.

Comments

[Maxim]

The secret superhero wife was a predictable twist in the movie. Charlize Theron is great in dramatic roles, Devil'd Advocate and The Monster being her best ones, but in action movies she sucks: both Hancock and Ultraviolet were lousy performances that I wish I ciould forget quickly, but they are stuck in my memory as some of the worst performances by a great actress.

[Jim Treacher]

I really liked it. It's not "two different movies sloppily pasted together," like a lot of critics are saying. It's one movie that takes a turn that's very logical based on the new piece of information we're given. (Click my name to read me yammer on about it at length.)