Give Hancock a Break!

Rating: 9/10 (4 December 2008)

It is hard to understand all the negative responses to this movie. I get the fact that people had EXPECTATIONS based upon the troika of Will Smith/Summer Movie/Superhero  like they were looking for that really GREAT MIB sequel.
Well, it's not. Get over it.
What HANCOCK is is a really good movie and it would be a really good movie whether it came out in the summer or in February. Maybe the problem is that HANCOCK is a superhero movie for adults (and with some of the language, the drinking and where he shoved peoples' heads  this was no Spiderman flick). Ang Lee tried to do this in the first Hulk movie. The film wasn't about the Hulk  it was about Bruce Banner. This movie is about this guy  Hancock  who is a loner, a drunk, anti-social and probably smells bad but has superpowers. Who is he and how did he get here? Hancock would like to know this as much as the audience would.
That's the story. This is not a franchise-making, summer toy. This is a story. And for everyone griping about the first-half/second half, from the MOMENT Hancock and Mary met  something was going on. Charlize Theron (amazing as always) did a great job of showing both an attraction and an apprehension of Hancock. I thought for a while she would turn out to be the villain and this thing would jump into Fantastic Four land. I'm glad it didn't. I totally dug the mythology the writers created. It was new! It was fresh! It gave the characters a human depth. And she and Will made it believable. Sure  Jason Bateman played his usual role, but he was a good counter-point to the other two. Will Smith  I thought  gave an excellent performance. For once  his character didn't cruise through the movie on charm. Hancock rarely smiles and he's not the life of the party  but he is a hero, which he proves to himself by the end of the film.
See it for yourself. Don't bring expectations and you will be rewarded.