Will Smith’s ‘Hancock’ Was Ahead of Its Time

When Hancock first premiered in theaters in 2008, it was during the beginning of the superhero movie renaissance. The X-Men franchise was going strong. Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man was king. And the first seeds of the Marvel Cinematic Universe had just been planted with Iron Man. It should have been the perfect time for a well-crafted superhero comedy, but 10 years after its premiere, the Will Smith-starring movie isn’t known as the grandfather of superhero comedies. Instead, it’s largely viewed as a disaster, which isn’t financially or even thematically accurate. So what went wrong, and where does Hancock fit in the history of superhero cinema 10 years later?

In case you’ve forgotten in the intervening years (or blocked it out), the movie follows Hancock, a constantly drunk and surly superhero who has a major PR problem. He saves people, but he also punches random strangers and destroys everything in sight while doing so. Luckily he meets Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), a public relations specialist who’s dedicated to making Hancock great again. The first half of the movie is pretty fun as it follows its terrible hero stumbling through his good deeds, and Jason Bateman doing what he does best: awkwardly cleaning up another person’s mess. It’s the second half of the movie, which involves Ray’s secretly immortal wife Mary (Charlize Theron), a forbidden love plot that’s lasted for decades, and the moon, that flies off the rails.

Hancock could have worked. The cast was great. It premiered during a time when superheroes were popular. But the movie never really clicked.

Hancock was originally written by Vincent Ngo in 1996. It languished in production hell for years before Columbia Pictures finally decided to make the movie. The 2008 version of the film is vastly different than Ngo’s original script, which allegedly leaked online shortly after the movie’s release. The film was never a critical success; it currently has a 41 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. But it was a box office success, making $624 million against its $150 million budget. At the time, the movie was criticized for both being too predictably silly in its first half, and too insane in its second half. Mind you, those criticisms still stand. Hancock doesn’t necessarily work as a coherent story. But if it had been released just a few years later, it’s hard to imagine that it would have been as critically lambasted.

The Peter Berg-directed movie tried to craft a superhero formula before Marvel perfected it: take an interesting premise (a drunk superhero); throw in some slapstick humor; embrace the weirdness of this world; and watch the money pour in. Both Guardians of the Galaxy movies embrace this ethos, as well as Thor: Ragnarok. The Deadpool franchise has made millions and broken records for giving superhero tropes the middle finger. All have been incredibly successful, both critically and commercially. But Hancock has never been allowed to play with his raunchy and absurd peers.

It’s possible that a movie almost exclusively dedicated to mocking tropes was a big ask during this time. In 2008, superhero movie audiences were more used to battles defined by one guy punching an evil person. It’s now not unusual to see battles waged on spiritual planes or through dance-offs. Hancock‘s story about a love so powerful it could tear the universe apart was an ill fit for the decade.

And though Smith is a hard sell for the surly Hancock, he infuses the movie with a wry irreverence. As noble as superheroes are supposed to be, the idea of a spandex-clad person fixing all of the world’s problems is silly, and Hancock pointed that out. Likewise, Bateman’s portrayal of the ambitious and optimistic Ray works well against Hancock’s cynical exterior. Bateman is an actor who works best when he’s butting heads against someone, and Smith is a worthy foe, throwing back cheesy insults and one-liners. It’s during these little moments — seeing Hancock fight with Ray, watching Hancock drunkenly fly, seeing him wake up on random street corners — that the movie is its best and funniest.

There was always potential to Hancock, and the first part of the movie is still pretty funny. But looking back its ideas felt too 2018 for its 2008 execution. Much like The Incredibles, there is a prophetic note to Hancock’s role in the evolution of onscreen superheroes. It’s hard to imagine the Deadpool movies without Hancock. The world may not have been ready for its drunkest superhero ten years ago… But a decade later, it might be worth a rewatch.

Where to stream Hancock