Hancock is very much in the spirit of Iron Man, from earlier this summer. Our hero is an anti-hero… drunk, smug, angry, selfish, and powerful. But unlike Tony Stark, his story starts to turn not when he is beaten into a change of perspective but because there is something going on inside of him that is clearly aware of an ambivalence about his behavior. Even as he “saves the day” and screws up massively in the process, causing tens of millions in damage as he “helps,” one gets the feeling in the audience that he is a bit of a ***-up, but also a bit willful about being lazy and missing the mark, like a teenager who has grown into the body of an adult but who hasn’t gotten over the itchy need to show everyone that now “I am a man!”
Just thinking about one of Hancock's destructive take-offs (destroying a bus bench and leaving a massive hole in the cement it was screwed into) or landings (leaving car-sized holes in streets)… can anyone who has dealt with a brooding teen male be unable to imagine that kid taking off and landing exactly like that. “Stop playing with the X-Box and save that damned busload of children!” “Damn it! Why are you always interrupting me before I get to the next level!” SLAMMM… through the roof… another destroyed TV set…
The rest...
The spoiler review is due sometime tonight...
Read the complete post at http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/archives/2008/07/hancock_nonspoi.html