Good Flick...bad marketing.

Rating: 6/10 (8 April 2009)

Hancock is the product of two very strong ideas that don't quite mesh as well as it's creators likely hoped. The first idea is that of an alcoholic superhero who only saves lives due to some natural compulsion that he can't fight but otherwise cares nothing for anybody. The other idea is a gritty realistic look at what life as a superhero would be like. The emphasis of the story is the latter, while the previews imply the former.
The first half of the movie plays out similarly to a super powered bad Santa...making for some very good and unique laughs. As Hancock attempts to clean up his act though things take a much darker turn and we learn that Hancock does in fact have a heart and it's broken.
If Super powers really did exist in this extremity Hancock's plot would likely be a pretty good representation of it's pitfalls. The guy's lonely as all hell, he drinks, he costs millions in property damage for every act of heroics. This is something different that we've never seen, Spider-man's not always loved by everyone he saves but at least he was never handed a bill for breaking a window.
Despite a good box office return I think feelings of the movie from it's general audience were only Luke warm but I think it will appreciate in value as time goes on. It's a superhero drama with a very interesting and original plot, it's just too bad it was marketed as a superhero action comedy. A stronger villain would've have helped to inject more action into the movie and possibly would have made everybody happy...the movie is a little slow but I've seen it a couple times and it's already grown more on me. I urge everybody to give a chance...even if it's a second one.