Yesterday I went to see the movie, “Hancock.” Now, if you’ve been around me for any length of time, you know I am a fairly conservative man not taken to publicly commenting on politics or fandom, because my views are not your business – only my actions are. So other than the occasional movie recommendation for “Happy Feet” or “Enchanted,” I really don’t get riled about movies or TV programs. But “Hancock” rubbed me the wrong way for the wrong reason. If you haven’t seen “Hancock” and plan to, you should move on past this intersection of the internet because I am an unhappy man about this movie. This vent will assume you’ve seen the movie and contains spoilers, so you have been warned if you continue to read.
Right up front I want to say I have no problem with the very talented actors in this movie. My problem is with the story. The writers Vy Vincent Ngo and Vince Gilligan didn’t know how to tell the story they wanted and ended up telling a story of omission. The movie is about superheroes when it should have been about relations and relationships.
John and Mary are super powered gods, the last of their kind and have been on the planet for at least 3000 years. Mary probably wasn’t lying when she told John that they were brother and sister, as most gods in mythology are all family. She certainly wasn’t lying when she told him and Ray that they were husband and wife, although “mates” or “intended” probably would have been a better words.
These gods have two problems. When they are together they slowly but surely become mortal, subject to pain and death. The other problem is that he is a black man and she is a white woman. The latter complicates the former. I get that society norms made it difficult for these gods to have a meaningful long term relationship. Mary points out that John is always hurt trying to protect her, the last time was in 1933 when they were going to see “King Kong” in Miami Florida. (By the way John, it was 75, not 80 years ago – you know, in case you want to do the math again.) I get that she wasn’t allowed to ride in the ambulance and that he’d been beaten so badly that he lost his memory. So Mary did the Shayera Hol thing in “Starcrossed,” and just walked away from the relationship, leaving John to fend for himself.
But what I don’t get, just like John didn’t get it, was what kind of person could watch her mate, her intended, degrade to the state Hancock did and do nothing. Oh wait, she did do something. She built a new life for herself and pretended she was human. Then when John did call her on it, she went all “Wonder Woman” on his butt – like she was the hurt party.
This movie could have explored the relationship of John and Mary offering more subtext so John, who has no secret identify, no way to have a private relationship with a human the way Mary can, could have closure. I left the theatre not knowing if John and Mary ever loved each other at any point over the last 3000 years or if they’d stayed to together because they were strangers in a strange land and in that sense had formed a bond. That was the story that should have been told.
Maybe they’ll do that in the sequel which I’ll get around to watching when it comes to HBO. Yup, definitely, a story of omission.
ETA: I stand corrected on one point. I see that the movie was Frankenstein which was released in 1931 so that would make it 77 years ago and close enough to call it 80 years ago as in the movie. Everything else stands as posted.