When Hancock came to theatres last July I was in no hurry to see it based on the reviews I’d seen and quite frankly the trailers I’d caught didn’t wow me. So, earlier this week, when my roommate wanted to rent some movies we were both fairly ambivalent about seeing Hancock, but neither of us had seen it… so we rented it with kinda a “meh” feeling. After making a point to watch the finer points of the new WWE’s Rock dvd I had to choose between Hancock and Wall-E, I had seen Wall-E already, so…

I was immedately stuck by the fact that this movie would be a lot better if it had been the movie that was promised in the trailers. I was left with the distinct impression that this movie was a sort of “What if Superman existed in the real world and was an asshole?” The story would write itself, have awesome visuals and be laden with comedy gold and might even have a message snuck in there for the kids. But no, we get is “What if a self-centered bum had superpowers?” a contrived concept of how all super-heroes were gods, angels, and heroes in the time of myth and were all immortal, but inexplicably they were ‘built in pairs’ (whatever that means) and then lose their powers if they hang out too long with their opposite… umm… what? And for some reason Hancock doesn’t learn all this until very late in the film from someone who should have said something like say… an hour and a half earlier because his life was at risk.

Let me get this straight. Somewhere in their biology is a gene that decides that they need something resembling normal lives which for some reason strips them of their invulnerability and makes them vulnerable to things like guns. So, when it comes down to it… Can you imagine if you had a genetic predisposition to becoming more vulnerable to harm? And they toss ina love interest for litterally NO REASON. I will say that this movie is based on fun moments the way most Leslie Nielsen films are based on running gags. And its a fun concept right up until they share what they feel super-heroes are.

So yeah, see it if someone else rents it and you’re really, really bored.