Movie Review: Hancock

Filthy, unshaven, drunk and vulgar, Hancock is the absolute opposite of the typical superhero. The idea is singularly spectacular, but it only carries the film during the first half - the remaining plot twists create more questions and resolve fewer answers, until the audience is fuming with aggravation. Worthy amounts of comedy save the film from total nonsense, but for all the unique ideas surrounding Hancock, it seems inevitable midway that not everything will piece together smoothly.

John Hancock (Will Smith) is a bum, waking up in his own filth on a bench in the street, unkempt, bedraggled, crude, mannerless and cynical. He is also a superhero. Suffering from amnesia, Hancock follows an undiscovered calling within himself that finds the crass demigod continually saving the lives of various people in his hometown of Los Angeles. But his services come with a hefty price tag, as he uncaringly and accidentally destroys millions of dollars worth of property in the process of stopping armed madmen - leading to great disdain from the very humans he rescues.

In walks Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), a PR guy with no luck trying to sell his revolutionary yet profitless ideas to major moneymaking corporations. When his life is saved by the destructive Hancock, he sees the strong resentment the public administers. Realizing the loneliness and confusion resonating in the unappreciated superhero, Ray offers his services to help redefine Hancock's less-than-perfect public image. Involving a new look, a new outfit, vocal coaching, and a short prison sentence, Hancock appears to be back on the right track to fulfilling his destiny as a savior of the world - until Ray's mysterious wife Mary (Charlize Theron) reveals some startling clues to Hancock's past.