Hancock - review by Mervius

The idea for Hancock must have looked good on paper as a full-blown comedy. We take a charismatic big star like Will Smith - known mostly for humor, but able to hold his own in drama (see The Pursuit of Happyness) - and make him a superhero. But we turn that comic book convention on its head by injecting a dose of today's public backlash at the poor behavior and embarrassing shenanigans of modern celebrities. Our protagonist will be a drunk who often causes just as much trouble as he solves. Yeah, I can see it now, there'll be a lot of jokes and sight gags that can be milked from such a premise.

And the movie does come off that way, for a little while. But working against the comedic element is a perhaps unavoidable dark side. Our superhero's bad attitude wears out its dubious welcome pretty quickly. Ah, but at least the movie knows this, as Hancock soon decides to turn over a new leaf by accepting the offer of some public relations help from a man whose life he recently saved - Ray Embrey (played by Jason Bateman). (more...)

Hancock - review by Kevin Farley

Superhero movies seem to be abounding these days. Not only are the folks at Marvel rebooting a lot of their franchises, but the new Batman series is a dynamic success as well. Even newer, less fanboy-driven movies are popping up. Like Hancock.

Will Smith plays the titular superhero. Like so many other “realistic” characters appearing these days, he’s not exactly perfect, despite his superhuman abilities – able to fly, bulletproof, superhuman strength. In fact, he’s far from perfect – he’s a borderline homeless alcoholic who hates people and who manages to turn every “heroic” rescue attempt into a destructive fiasco that ends up costing the city of Los Angeles millions of dollars.
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