Movie Review: Hancock

I think Will Smith is great.

He can be a gung-ho, hilarious, apparently low intelligence action hero in movies like Men in Black, Independence Day, and I, Robot then do a film with a little more substance like The Pursuit of Happyness and come across as an ordinary person with proper feelings and emotions.

So I like to watch his movies. And until I see Seven Pounds I thought I'd hire Hancock from BlockBuster.

Wasn't really expecting much to be honest, since the reviews were not good. But they've been regularly wrong in the past, and I'm probably a little more tolerant than most.

At first it was a breath of fresh air, and I was riveted to the screen for probably the first hour or so. I liked the fact that he was drunk all the time, couldn't fly without waving his arms and legs all over the place and was more concerned about getting his next bottle of booze than not destroying stuff. But unfortunately I had to agree that it lost it a little when they explained why he had super powers.

I could've accepted a Spider Man or Hulk-esque 'bit by a spider' or 'fell in radioactive stuff' explanation more easily than the reason offered. It felt like they had gotten to the bit where they had to explain his superpowers, ran out of ideas and went cross eyed.

I hate it when a film goes awry like that, especially when it had a huge budget and started so well. But even with its faults, I did enjoy Hancock and will definitely watch the sequel because apparently Will Smith hated the first film and will be much more involved with the next. And even though this film has its faults, it's one hundred times better than the drivel that is Superman Returns.

I'd recommend it for the kind of night where you just want to sit and watch an action film which just washes over you. Get a beer and ogle Charlize Theron.