Movie review: Hancock

Spoilers follow.

I wanted to like this movie. The previews intrigued me enough that I chose watching it over reading my book last night. I guess I don't exactly regret the decision, but I sure came away disappointed.

The first part of the movie is really good. I was enjoying Hancock's transformation from drunken, abrasive not-so-super-hero to fledgling do-gooder. Will Smith's performance through these parts was nuanced and interesting, and Jason Bateman was a good foil.

And then the movie took a left turn. I had just barely begun to enjoy the all new Hancock when the whole story line with Charlize Theron picked up. And even that I was trying to go along with—or I was at least curious where they were going with it—when the movie took another left turn, and we've suddenly got an ill-defined arch-nemesis and historical background on the characters that was, well, kind of silly. (Question: After listening to the hospital conversation between John and Mary, why, exactly, is she supposed to have hated him? Yeah, yeah, she was scared, but they wrote scenes for an angry woman, not a scared one. And then she had no reason to be angry.)

It seemed like nobody knew quite what to do with the movie after the setup. I know what I would have done: there was a wonderful developing-character story in the making there, and I really wanted to see what that character was going to make of the world. Instead, I got a boring battle and an unsatisfying conclusion.

Maybe it's time for some fanfiction.