Hancock

The last of the films I saw on the marathon movie day and honestly the most surprising. I was expecting predictable Will Smith humor, plot and explosions and ended up getting a bit more. It may be a case of having extremely low expectations and being surprised when it isn't terrible, but this movie might have had something different to say. I'll write a bit about it and see if I can't uncover what that is.

The first thing I noticed after watching 3 films before this one was demographics. There were decidedly more black people in the audience. Will Smith's humor is more urban and "black" (whatever this means, but I can't think of a more PC way to describe it in this moment) and this played to the crowd. As frustrated as I get not seeing any well-depicted lesbians on screen, blacks must be equally frustrated. There is never a black superhero that is the main character and not some side-kick to the white guy. God Iron Man was frustrating on this level. It appears as though this movie was aiming to play to a slightly shifted demographic and hit its mark. They were looking primarily for the Black audience and then banking on Smith's star power and the white side-kick/Charlize Theron to bring in some of the white audience. (I wish things could be colorblind, but they still are, as our Presidential campaign has clearly highlighted. Just as I have to still worry about my sexuality and being a woman in the entertainment industry.)

The movie started out rather predictable and just as the trailers indicated, a screw-up superhero, who is alone in the world and depressed, but wants to make a change and needs help to realize his full potential as a noble good superman like figure. A depressed and lonely superhero is a common enough theme, but it is never the premise of the film, just hinted at. Batman is good at hinting at his loneliness, but he always has a woman interest to at least give him hope of normality. This was about drunken depression and isolation as an outcast from society (which I can relate to and the X-Men films under Bryan Singer alluded to) where being a superhero didn't solve all your problems, but created them.

And then Charlize Theron popped up which was a shock to me. I had no idea what she was doing in the "housewife" role and the whole time I was like, she is way to good of an actor to be playing this vulnerable, angry yet attracted and emotional woman whenever Hancock is around. There must be more to it. I knew something was up and when she busted out her super strength too, I knew it was coming, but in a "Now I'm really excited way!" She was stronger than him, but he was always the "hero." Sure this is a play on femininity and her "maternal" instincts and her desire to settle down, while the man is the hero. It would have been nice to see her become LA's hero and him NYC's hero in the end instead of her staying the housewife, but the whole premise behind their story was interesting. Opposites attracting, becoming mortal when they are near each other and eventually dying, tying in with history and mythology of multiple gods and human nature to love, the desire to settle down and die even when given the choice to be immortal. Hancock's memory loss had a similar effect as Jason Bourne's in that it made him re-examine who he was without social conditioning (literally ages of it). And he was still a hero who loved the same woman, but gave her up to survive even though all the others of his kind had chosen love and death. It was more than I expected from the film and made me think. I like unexpected strong women, even if they are just a counterpoint to men and I wasn't as bothered by this as I should have been. I think because Theron does not allow her characters to be one note. Even as the "homemaker" she came across as having chosen this for herself out of strength of will. Although it should bug me that she can have the world and chooses to houseclean and make cookies like a good embodiment of traditional femininity, it didn't. Perhaps this is why the movie piqued my interest. If only I could pinpoint why it didn't bother me like it should.

Also, congratulations to Daeg who was Michel the bully in this film. What a great little part for him. I hope he continues to have success.