A super hero that turns out not to be so super after all.

Rating: 3/10 (25 November 2008)

When you need special F/X to make money on a movie, why bother with actors? Wait, they tried that with WALL-E and that movie pretty much failed as well. Hancock is yet another movie in, what I fear, will be a longer and longer line of disappointments. Smith is okay, not one of our greatest actors, but for the most part entertaining in most of what he does. I read that the part was first offered to Chappelle, which probably would not have made this movie any worse, or maybe better, since no one expects much out of him. Audiences do expect more from Smith and when he fails, as they all do, we seem to be more harsh, myself included. Theron, an award winner no less, well, I wonder what she was thinking when she considered this role. What we have is a down-and-out super hero who no one likes since whenever he saves someone he seems to cause more damage than if he did not. He's a depressed and lonely guy, but we only know this because another character tells us so. Otherwise, the audience figures he's just a drunk, but does not know why. In the first scene with Smith and Theron we all figure out that something is going on, and know that she probably has the same powers he does. The scene where they kiss then she slams him out of the house with a fridge made no sense. Of course we do not find out the why to all of this GO AWAY! from Mary until the end of the movie, so you have to sit around until then, or do what a lot of people do lately, and fast forward. But what really ruined this movie, other than a bad script, robotic-like performances with monotone dialogue, and over-done F/X, was the jittery camera work. Talk about needing some Dramamine before watching.