[Week IX] - Hancock

Will SMith, in his yearly July 4th box office powerhouse, is the titular Hancock. He is everything you wouldn't want in a superhero and He drinks. He is awful. And if you dare call him an asshole to his face then he will cut your arm or do his signature "Your head is going up his ass" and he means it. Unlike other superheroes who are known for being kind and fighting bad guys with tentacles and equal power, Hancock fights more common crime -think bank robberies -throughout Los Angeles. He swoops down to help an advertising exec who's BMW is trapped on the traintracks. But when he saves the advertising executive, Ray Embrey , it starts a chain of events with Mary Embrey , Ray's wife at the center that that ultimately leads to one awful ending. It's a film that rolls along with a good amount of laughter including Will Smith doing something that he isn't normally known for - dropping the 'f' bomb - and then suddenly it stops being funny. We know why other superheroes have superhuman strength and can fly or change the weather when pissed but there was no reason for why Hancock is so curmudgeonly and cruel. Upon finding out his story the film makes a downward turn towards not so funny. It turns silly and a serious moment at the end when people should have their eyes brimming with tears is met with silence. It was as if the fun was sucked out of the movie just to make some sort of overly dramatic and preposterous point about how we humans inherently need to be with another person.