Hancock is Hugely Disappointing

            This was a pretty slow week for movies with the only new release being Hancock, a superhero film with a fresh twist. I was extremely excited to see how a drunken superhero film would play out. The excellent idea fueling the film really could have pushed it one of two ways: exceptionally good or exceptionally bad, but in the end, it fell in the realm of mediocrity.

            Hancock (Will Smith), an angry alcoholic superhero works hard (or hardly works) to rid Las Angeles of bad guys on a daily basis, just like any other superhero. He just happens to cause massive amounts of destruction while he does. But hey, that’s pretty good for a drunk guy! I mean you’ve really got to hand it to him! And that’s exactly what PR man, Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), thinks after being a fortunate victim of Hancock’s rescue and decides to recover Hancock’s public image. With the help of Ray’s wife, Mary (Charlize Theron), and son Aaron (Jae Head), Hancock turns himself around. Strange looks from Mary to Hancock suggest an intimacy between the two and when she finally opens up, a mystery about Hancock’s identity begins to unravel.

            The truly amazing thing about Hancock is the added psychological depth to the genre, where the self and relationships are the biggest struggle to overcome rather than evil villains. To that extent, Hancock goes beyond any true superhero film ever created. In fact, while that is its biggest strength, it ultimately is the film’s greatest weakness as well. The attempt to solve the complex puzzle of Hancock’s identity goes from a central element to taking the back seat about half-way into the movie, leaving us with very weak explanations that just don’t seem to satisfy. And although the film is uniquely spectacular in one sense, it becomes so convoluted by the end that its weaknesses seem to outweigh its strengths and it ends up missing the mark by a mile.