Photos: Will Smith in his ‘Hancock’ Superhero Outfit

Posted by Rob Hunter (rob@filmschoolrejects.com) on January 28, 2008

SuperHeroHype has new pics (via Korean site Cine21) of Will Smith’s spectacularly dull superhero costume from his upcoming summer blockbuster, Hancock. The outfit is extremely underwhelming, but damn if he still isn’t huggable.

Hancock is directed by Peter Berg, he of the excellent The Kingdom and the better-than-it-deserved-to-be The Rundown. And it co-stars Jason Bateman who is comedy gold in everything he touches! Seriously, he’s the Michael Cera of his generation. (Attention casting directors… will someone please put these two actors together! They’d play perfectly off each other’s sardonic subtleties. Father and son maybe? Can’t you just picture it!) Smith stars as a once great superhero that now generates only scorn and derision from a society that used to revere him. As well-intentioned as his good deeds are, he can’t help but perform them in a sloppy and destructive manner. He’s an indifferent superhero, which is an ingenious premise, until the day he meets Charlize Theron and discovers he really does care… and that’s where the movie threatens to derail.

The trailer for Hancock looks pretty damn good, with a nice mix of attitude, action, and humor that seems the perfect fit for Smith. I’ll reserve judgement until I see the movie though since good superhero comedies are notoriously difficult to find. My Super Ex-Girlfriend was horrendous. Mystery Men wasn’t funny regardless of its pseudo-cult status with the six people who enjoyed it. Sky High was for kids (but sucked anyway.) The Incredibles was good, but it’s animated so it doesn’t count. And no, I won’t consider Orgazmo. In fact I have to go back twenty five years to the seminal John Ritter classic, Hero at Large, for an entertaining superhero comedy that succeeded with both the laughs and the action. And he wasn’t even a real superhero. And you could argue there wasn’t any real action, but that only strengthens my point…

Take a look at the new pics below:

Hancock hits theaters July 2, 2008.

Read more articles by Rob Hunter