Hancock

Will Smith plays John Hancock, a super hero, a bum, and an alcoholic whose "heroics" always manage to cause millions of dollars of damage and enrage the public.  A PR rep played by Jason Bateman, decides to take on the task of making the public love Hancock.  

This is a fun movie.  I love the original idea of the story, having a superhero be a bum and hated by the people.  There's fun action and some very funny situations with Hancock saving the day yet causing lots of damage and upsetting people.  That said, this movie struggles in deciding just what type of movie it wants to be.  The beginning is very fun and comedic, presenting a few fun situations that a hated superhero could be in (I must complain that the trailers and commercials for the movie showed everyone of those fun situations, which kind of takes away from the impact of them).  The movie takes a big turn in it's second half and gets very dramatic.  I liked both halves of the movie but I feel like one of the two routes should have been taken and explored more fully throughout the entire movie, not just a half.  Had one of the two been more fully committed to I think the movie would've had more heart to it and the actors, Will Smith specifically, could've done more with their roles.  The special fx are well done and don't take you out of the movie, the cg stunt doubles are some of the more realistic ones I've seen.  The running time is a little short for movies these days, clocking in at about 90 minutes, yet at times you're wondering when they're going to get to explaining certain things.  But as is it's a lot of fun to start and emotionally interesting enough to keep you into it to the finish, but still a little forgettable. 

**1/2 - Not a must see, but worth a July 4th trip to the theater.

(PG-13 for vulgar language and violence)