Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
Hancock is a down-and-out superhero who's forced to employ a PR expert to help repair his image when the public grows weary of all the damage he's inflicted during his lifesaving heroics. The agent's idea of imprisoning the antihero to make the world miss him proves successful, but will Hancock stick to his new sense of purpose or slip back into old habits?
Hancock starts with a genuinely fresh premise — a self-destructive, alcoholic superhero long before the antihero genre became saturated — but fumbles it badly in the second half with a tonal shift and a convoluted mythology reveal that undermines the grounded setup. Will Smith's charisma carries the acting above average, though the supporting cast is underused. Cinematography is workmanlike and unremarkable for a big-budget action film. The novelty earns a modest boost for its early irreverence and the PR-rehabilitation angle, which felt distinctive at the time. The ending is a particular weak point — the mythology twist lands awkwardly, the romantic tension is unresolved in a frustrating way, and the film closes without a satisfying arc.