I didn't want to give this movie a chance, thinking that a movie about Will Smith playing an unlikable character was trying to hard. Alas, fate brought me to sit and watch this movie and I have to say, I actually liked it.
Nay, I didn't just like it, I found it to be extremely enjoyable and entertaining.
You have your superhero: "John" Hancock, a drunk who flies and begrudgingly helps the police, but in the process makes a complete disaster of every bit of of the city of Los Angeles in his path. I know what the writers were trying to do here; make a character we didn't like, with a sourpuss scowl on his face. But he's funny, and he's Will Smith, for God's sake.
Somehow, Hancock meet's Jason Bateman's Ray, a struggling publicist, trying ever so earnestly to make the world a better place. Ray sees Hancock as a publicist's dream, and thus brings him home, and enter Charlize Theron (as his "angelic" wife, Mary) and his son, Aaron (the obvious heart-wrencher). Ray tries to impress on Hancock that he needs to shape up his image, all while spending time in prison, where he should've been long ago because of several serious offenses.
Once Hancock has spent about 3 days in the slammer, all while going to AA meetings (and continuing to issue no comment in the circle), and taking etiquette lessons from Ray, the world realizes they actually need him. And voíla, he is a reformed do-gooder.
While the overall premise and script are nice and tidy, the transformation is a unbelievable. Sure, Hancock knows that he's not well-liked, all while fervently insisting he doesn't care what people think, but I think it takes longer than a week to shape up, and the process seemed very rushed and phony.
All throughout the movie, Hancock struggles with who he is, knowing that he's the only one of his kind. He woke up 80 years ago with no knowledge of who he was, or where he came from. Leave Charlize Theron to fill in the pieces.
Overall, I'd say this movie has nothing short of what a Summer movie needs: Action, Humor, Explosions, and a bit of Sentimentality.
Go see it.
Grade: B+
Current Total: 44
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