Hancock

A drunk, surly superhero. An idealist PR man. The city of Los Angeles threatening to sue if the superhero doesn’t turn himself in for rehab.

Such is the setup for the new movie, “Hancock”, starring Will Smith.

I saw the movie on Thursday afternoon, on my way home for a half-day at work. I thought it was good, funny, but rather short for a movie that had to both introduce us to a new superhero, explain his backstory, and deliver a good solid climax (yet it clocked in at roughly 90 minutes long). The “big reveal”, the twist, wasn’t even part of the end of the story. And the plot point that Hancock wasn’t the only one of his kind on the planet didn’t yield a bad guy of his stature.

I think the movie started off a strong premise, one that could have turned a genre on its head. The story in its second half was more emotional, more tragic in a way, but was clearly a separate story, one that was not properly in sync with the rest of the movie.

And don’t get me started on the so-called villains in this flick.