I'm No Superman

In a superhero-crammed Hollywood summer, I'm going to say straightaway that I found the original idea behind "Hancock" refreshing and intriguing. Its premise asks a question: What would a superhero be like if he was not only realistically human, but also tragically flawed? What if a being with godlike abilities also had anger issues, an alcohol problem, and had to deal with a resentful public? Going further to create a flawed anti-hero than perhaps any film before it, "Hancock" answers that question by documenting the exploits of its titular protagonist.
Just that setup is plenty, frankly, and it starts promisingly enough. And though most of the action in "Hancock" has already been shown in the trailers, it's made up for with some funny dialogue and Smith's amusing, slurred, curse-studded performance.
Picking up in the middle of a high-speed pursuit, the film introduces John Hancock (Will Smith), a hangover-ridden powerhouse who is as reckless as he is ambivalent towards the crimes he grudgingly stops. So he plunders through Los Angeles and his life, trying to find a helpful use for the powers he woke up in a hospital with 80 years prior. But after saving the life of a good-hearted PR agent, Ray (Jason Bateman), however, his life begins to take a turn.
Ray attempts to repay his whiskey-swilling savior by improving Hancock's public image. FIrst up? A prison term to answer the public outcry Hancock's vigilantism has spawned. This provides some comedy (the old "your head up his ass" gag Hancock likes to pull on criminals) and some serious emotion and tension (as Hancock gazes past the fences that couldn't ever stop his escape and refuses to participate in anger management meetings). But when the police need him (as Ray and everyone in the audience predicted), Hancock dutifully answers the call, proving his capacity for heroism.
The problem is... he proves it a little early. The issues raised in the first half of "Hancock" could easily have filled the entire film. Instead of resolving a simple story about redemption, however, the filmmakers throw in an early twist. Ray's wife Mary (Charlize Theron), it turns out, is not only possessed of heavy mascara - she and Hancock are two of a kind, mates, immortal beings who have been on Earth for thousands of years. They are destined to be together, but unfortunately they lose their abilities when they are near each other.
All life-force-draining woman jokes aside, the amnesia which has plagued Hancock for eight decades is due to a brain injury he sustained after temporarily losing his invulnerability because of his desire to be close to the only other person in the world who can identify with him. And if he's not careful, it'll happen again.
As this new plot is hastily and somewhat confusingly introduced, some of the originality is drained from the film just as quickly as Hancock's powers. And dang, wouldn't you know it, just as our hero becomes a mortal, his first great super-villain is introduced (really just a bank robber with a claw hand... an EVIL claw hand!). In the end, after Ray has removed the villain's other hand in a not-quite-comical moment, Hancock saves the life of both himself and his star-crossed love by running (or flying) away, putting distance between them and escaping to New York to become a true boring superhero once and for all. And Ray is apparently fine with the idea of being married to a Charlize Theron who will never age. Who wouldn't be?
"Hancock" suffers from a complete loss of momentum midway through that ultimately left me disappointed and asking where it had all gone wrong.There are aspects which could be called redeeming, and thankfully it's nowhere near "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" territory, one of my fears walking in. Instead, the mythological take on superpowers leaves an aftertaste reminiscent of one of my favorite superhero movies, "Unbreakable." But the round peg of a WIll Smith comedy doesn't fit into the square hole of a thought-provoking examination of heroism that "Unbreakable" was.
Bateman plays his supporting role with classic Bateman charm - he nails the do-gooder role he has perfected. Theron (who has played Bateman's love interest before, but that was retar-- uh, nevermind) is unable, however, to garner much sympathy for her character, so much of the emoting is left to Smith.
But to criticize the film too much is to forget that it is a superhero movie, which up to this point have not been the best of cinematic endeavors to begin with. And to point up its flaws is to ignore some truly enjoyable moments throughout, particularly in the first half. If only the first half could have been the whole.

Grade: B-