Short, good fun!

Rating: 8/10 (7 July 2008)

Unique enough in its storyline albeit a little too obvious in its exposition, it's easy to see why Hancock would be something Will Smith would do. After all, he has admitted to his box-office formula of choosing movies with killer special effects to make him a star. He disturbed this pattern by doing The Pursuit of Happiness, but his trailblazing ways is apparent once more in choosing to be Hancock, the anti-hero.
Yes, Smith plays the lonely superhero John Hancock, who acts out his depression by being an alcoholic bum. He saves ever-the-optimist PR man Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), who insists on repaying Hancock by reinventing his image. This means hanging out with Hancock quite a lot, much to the chagrin of Ray's uptight wife, Mary (Charlize Theron) but to the wild delight of their son Aaron (Jae Head).
What is surprisingly great about this movie is the acting. Of course Smith effortlessly provides the believable action/comedy necessary, but Theron did fantastic work for a role that could have easily been so shallow, or worse, bad. A formidable figure indeed! Also worth noting is Head, who was charming; thankfully not of the annoyingly perky child star variety.
Hancock may be easily guessable, but while it's tame enough to give it a PG-13 rating, it has enough wow factors keep true action aficionados in their seats. Now that's smartly distributing one's eggs in several baskets.