(Spoiler alert: in order to cover this, I must reveal some plot points. You’ve been warned.) This is a confusing film. I don’t believe it knows what it is either. It wants to be a superhero film, but wants to be both a traditional one and a new and different and edgy one. Hancock is the Superman-like superhero (excellently portrayed by Will Smith) who is nasty, mean, and drunk. In his heroics, he often damages more than he helps, and the people hate him. Then a PR guy befriends him and tries to reform his image and make him into a hero people will like. There’s supposed to be some comedy in this, but it’s done in such a nasty, negative manner, with a lot of foul language and dark humor, that it comes across as more uncomfortable than funny. If the film had stopped there, it might have worked. But it goes off the deep end with a bizarre plot twist: apparently the PR’s guys wife, sheer coincidence, just happens to be another superhero, and one who knows Hancock’s real identity and story (he’s suffering from amnesia and doesn’t know how he became super). The two fight and we aren’t sure why and we don’t know who to root for, and since this takes up ten or twenty minutes of the film, we’re confused and disinterested for quite a while. In the end, things are explained (sort of) and everyone lives happily ever thereafter, but the ride to get there is bumpy. The special effects are cool, though often too fancy and fast to be visible, and are the main reason to see this. That and Will Smith’s performance (and Charlize Theron as the wife). Unfortunately, the film just doesn’t quite work or live up to its billing. It’s not terrible, just a little disappointing. The jokes fall flat, the plot is weak, and the gimmick of a superhero as a mean drunk and a jerk grows old quickly. Still, it has some fun elements and scenes and is okay if you’re not too discriminating.
