So, an action comedy about a drunken, sleazy superhero, eh? Sounds like a promising premise for an action comedy, don’t you think? I thought so, at least, when I bought tickets to see Hancock. I wasn’t much dissappointed.

John Hancock is a superhero, but he is also a bum and a rude asshole. He almost routinely causes immense collateral damage when performing heroic acts, and as a result the population of Los Angeles, his chosen city of residence, hate him and want him to go away. One day, he saves the life of the idealistic public relations guy Ray, who is so grateful he promises to renovate Hancock’s public image. Hancock reluctantly agrees, mostly because he is interested in Ray’s hot wife, Mary.

After a more or less fun opening, it looked as if Hancock was gonna fall flat on its nose. The crazy antics of an impulsive, angry, drunk and careless superhuman looked as if they would be replaced by a sappy buddy movie with a triangular love drama as the driving conflict. This, approximately halfway through the movie, was where the plot took a sort of absurd and unexpected twist, and suddenly became interesting again.

Or, allow me to be more specific: it made at least parts of the movie interesting again. There was still no real central villain to cause problems or act as a foil for Hancock, and the triangular love drama remained — although in a fairly cliché-free way, surprisingly enough. Seeing as the twist was one of the few real strengths the movie had, apart from Will Smith’s charisma and all the slapstick — I won’t say too much about it, except that it involved the introduction of a supernatural element. This supernatural element was not what you’d call well integrated into the rest of the movie, nor was it particularly advanced or logical or anything. It did have some things going for it, though, and what it lacked it didn’t necessarily need, either, making it a point of interpretation whether or not the absent elements really were missed.

All in all a fun movie to watch once or twice — preferable in theatres; in spite of some dubious handheld camera work, the action scenes need a big screen — but probably not something you’d ever come to love for its own inherent qualities. 6.0/10.