Hancock

"With great power, comes great responsibility" I recall this quote from a bottom-barrel cookie cutter superhero film once. Spider-Man hardly wowed me in any sense, this being surprising due to the always eclectic catalog of villains that Spidey could have faced off against. But no, he had to rival an old Willem Dafoe who played a cyborg version of the classic Green Goblin.

Meet Hancock, a superhero with a fresh start. With no serialization penning him to perform certain actions, It only seems logical and politically correct that the Black superhero would have no limitations and a clean slate to fuck up everything. Hancock is an alcoholic superhero who levels cities just to piss off city folks. He also has amnesia and some strange fetish for eagles and small children.


While the film structures itself on a simple plot of the ever-so fragile "iconic" image of a superhero, Hancock is thrown into a bunch of super-obstacles and several twists. After the film was initially over, I began to ask around for opinions. Most were favorable with a dash of negativity. I don't think America is ready for a Black Superhero just as many aren't ready for a Black president.


The film opens with slave-like jazz music resonating through the credits. We then see a homeless Black man with a nasty case of 5 O'clock shadow. After trying to halt a group of young Asian punks with his chemical-induced negotiation session, he gets called "Soulja Boy." Hancock responds by screaming "Konichiwa!" and impaling their SUV on a spike. Racial tension begins early. Heat picks up later when the idea of inter-racial marriages B.C. come into play. Comedy flairs when a French child (Played by the queer Michael Myers kid from Zombie's Halloween) gets thrown into the air so hard he "surrenders"

Candyman would have been proud of Will Smith's chocolate thunder. Some amazing visual flair is throttled through our retinas with a potent dose of incredible action, beautiful destruction effects, and raunchy humor. When I first heard news a while back that Hancock was being re-shot for a better rating, my stomach lurched, but with this viewing, I'm not too worried about it. That doesn't stop Hancock from severing arms, degrading homosexual's, and saying "Fuck."


Hancock has its "mortal" flaws. The later pacing is mildly sluggish, plot holes are a-plenty, and Will Smith played a horrible alcoholic, but the film is all in good fun. A rip-roaring comedy with equal treatment of a Superhero film. This one is definitely more comedic than Iron Man and definitely more action packed. I'd like to look forward to a sequel. Perhaps even bring in a bonafide villain this time. I can see it now; Christian Bale playing yet another White supremacist in another black marketed film.

-mAQ