Movie review: Hancock

Reviews for this movie have been all over the board, and while I liked it the biggest complaint is a legitimate one, in that the second act didn't live up to the first. Didn't they say the last thing about Will Smith's last movie, I am Legend? Though to be fair, this schizophrenia is due to the writers, not the actors.

The first half is great, with Will Smith establishing Hancock as a very flawed superhero, who seems to almost want to be hated but taking exception when people make it personal. But if Hancock was really as bad as people make him out to be, he wouldn't save people.

Where the movie weakens is when we get into the back story. It's hard not to go into any details on this without spoiling, and in fact the big plot twist would have been much more effective if it hadn't been spoiled by trailers and reviews. There are really two problems with the second act. One is that not enough was set up in the first half, so it all feels very sudden. The second is that it feels inconsistent, that the rules are changed at the writers' whims to fit the scene.

I've seen some other reviews harping on Smith's performance, but here I'll disagree. I think that he did a good job at portraying Hancock and is the reason why the first act is so good.

Like the writing, the score is also inconsistent. This isn't the first time this year I went to a movie and thought that the score used in the trailer was better than the actual film.

Overall, my rating is 3.5 booze-drinking self-loathing flying monkeys.