Half-cocked Hancock.

Rating: 2/10 (5 July 2008)

On paper, Hancock has promise: a drunken superhero who halfheartedly saves the day with a devil-may-care attitude, could provide a nice counterbalance to the secret life of a superhero. But about halfway through, the film gets rid of its interesting premise and settles for a origin tale that is baffling at best, and stupid at worst. The narrative clogs frequently and simply is very odd, as for a superhero pic there isn't much action to behold and the script basically gives no one anything to work with. That's a problem when your main character is basically a lush version of Superman, as it could've provided a nice satirical tone on the perception of superheroes, or least have some fun with it.
Unfortunately, with the premise thats supposed to draw audiences in gone and basically very few action scenes to hold much interest, Hancock can't seem to stay together without characters to care about and actors who can't quite pull it together. Whats more disappointing is that Peter Berg is apart of this mess. He directed the very good Friday Night Lights and the Rundown. Whatever good will he garnered with those flicks is almost erased by his script, which is not only dumb by itself but the doctoring by no less than 4 other writers makes it worse. making the film not only undercooked but overdone.
The acting is a bit of a mixed bag. Will Smith struggles from time to time, obviously an effect from a tone-deaf script, but is his usual engaging self. Charlize Theron is worst of the bunch, however, as her character who is quite simply terribly conceived. Her role goes from annoying to simply implausible by the time the plot twist kicks in. Jason Bateman turns out to be a bit of a saving grace, at least in the first half, but is pushed out of the way during the second half, with the script ignoring him constantly.
Overall, despite Bateman's valiant attempts to save this turd, Hancock is half-cocked with with too many vague, uninteresting ideas, uneven acting, boring action scenes, and quite simply the worst origins for any superhero. Avoid at all costs.