Hancock

Rating:

“It’s a bum! No! It’s a drunk! Nope! It’s both! It’s Hancock!”  This is the words that probably come out of the mouths of the citizens of Los Angeles whenever they get a glimpse of Mr. Hancock uncontrollably gliding in the air through the power of his hangover.

Hancock has the special abilities similar that of Superman, but has the same alcohol level of Captain Jack Sparrow. That can’t be good, and he causes millions of dollars worth of property damage every time he catches criminals. He has wrecked more than enough expensive stuff to put him away behind bars for a lifetime, and if Flying Under the Influence is an actual crime, he could spend an extra 50 lifetimes of his immortality in jail.

Because of the wrecked buildings, and the squished cars, and the devastated roads, the public has developed a hate for Hancock and his seemingly permanent facial expression. When the people’s anger reach their boiling point, Hancock finally tries to straighten himself, and accepts the support of a PR manager which he had just saved. This is a fun movie to watch because of the character that is Hancock, the asshole superhero.

It is a sad for me to say that after all the fun displays of Hancock’s superhuman abilities to annoy everyone at lightning speed, he becomes a nice guy, and the movie falls apart. The moment he stops breaking things and sobers up, society fall in love with him, and the movie takes on a very different, less interesting subject which is the origin of Hancock’s powers.

Why? Why change the character’s direction when the previous one was going so well? Majority of those who are familiar with Captain Jack Sparrow love exactly the way he is. Imagine if he changes his lifestyle, and he stops being the unique, smelly yet charming, rhum-chugging scalawag that he is. I’m pretty sure that he would lose half his fans if he found a PR and became a regular, smelly, rhum-chugging scalawag.

The makers of Hancock made the obvious mistake of creating something original and throwing it out the window before anyone could take a good look at it. “It’s a bum! No! It’s a drunk! Nope! It’s neither. It’s just Hancock. Nothing to see here folks.”