Two new movies will make make fun of superheroes this year, but neither one will actually have anything interesting to say about the eminently mockable genre, judging from the latest info. David Zucker's Superhero Movie will stick to sight-gags about well-known characters and serve up dumb innuendo, judging from this new clip. Meanwhile, Hancock, starring Will Smith, has the makings of the next Catwoman, judging from the plot summaries that have leaked out of early screenings.
Mar 20, 2008 06:30 AM
6,007
Enter your username and password.
San Francisco, 2:51 PM
Tue Feb 9
27 posts in the last 24 hours
Two new movies will make make fun of superheroes this year, but neither one will actually have anything interesting to say about the eminently mockable genre, judging from the latest info. David Zucker's Superhero Movie will stick to sight-gags about well-known characters and serve up dumb innuendo, judging from this new clip. Meanwhile, Hancock, starring Will Smith, has the makings of the next Catwoman, judging from the plot summaries that have leaked out of early screenings.
Now that Hancock director Peter Berg is officially remaking Dune, it's hard not to see his superhero romp as a bad omen. Official synopses of Hancock have portrayed it as the story of a drunken has-been superhero (Smith), who gets a press agent (Jason Bateman) but then has an affair with the agent's wife (Charlize Theron). But a rough cut of the film just screened in Texas, and attendees came out with much, much weirder plot descriptions.
According to the early reviews, Will Smith's Hancock is an immortal god, created thousands of years ago. But he's suffering from amnesia and doesn't realize his true nature. Plus he got mugged 20 years ago (when he'd lost his powers) and remains traumatized by the experience. Now he's a superhero who abuses his powers and does more harm than good.
Then Hancock saves Bateman's marketing exec, who offers to salvage his image in return. Bateman's big idea: Hancock should turn himself in and offer to go to jail for all the damage his heroics have caused, plus an underage girl he had sex with. (Apparently, when Hancock ejaculates, his sperm blasts through the roof of the trailer he lives in.) But then it turns out that Bateman's wife (Theron) is also a superhero, and is actually married to Hancock from thousands of years ago. But when Smith and Theron are together, they lose their superpowers for some reason.
When Bateman learns his wife is an all-powerful god who was created thousands of years ago to be Will Smith's perfect mate, he's somewhat distraught. Then Smith and Theron have to stop some escaped convicts, but can't get too close to each other without losing their powers. [Superhero Movie clip from MTV Movies. Hancock reviews at Ain't It Cool News.]
Send an email to Charlie Jane Anders, the author of this post, at charliejane@io9.com.
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
Start a new discussion