Hancock Being a movie fanatic, life is measured by when the next big movie release is going to be. One of the movies I have been looking forward to for a while was Hancock. Unfortunately, the movie was released in theatres during the summer when I was visiting Hong Kong and by the time I got back, it wasn’t in theatres anymore so I had to wait for the movie to be released on DVD. The movie is directed by Peter Berg and stars Will Smith and Charlize Theron. The movie takes place in modern day Los Angeles and revolves around an alcoholic superhero named Hancock that doesn’t care about his appearance and seen as a homeless, played by Will Smith. Unfortunately, due to his alcoholic problems, when he is saving people and taking out criminals, he causes a lot of property damage and puts other civilians in danger, which makes the citizens of Los Angeles somewhat despise him. The beginning of the movie follows Hancock in his adventures around Los Angeles bringing criminals to justice while causing a lot of destruction along the way. The movie then goes to another main character; a public relations manager played named Ray Embrey who just unsuccessfully tried to pitch a new charity logo to some corporate executives and is on his way home when he gets stuck on some train tracks while a train is coming. Hancock then comes just in time to save him, but derails the train in the process. The people around the scene start to boo him, but Ray thanks him for saving his life and offers to help Hancock improve his public image. Ray then suggests that Hancock go to jail for all the many bills he has racked up from the city of Los Angeles in property damage. Their strategy was to put Hancock behind bars and watch the crime rate rise in the city so that the people see how much they need him around. Hancock then goes to jail and within weeks the crime rate rises and the Chief of Police in Los Angeles calls for Hancock’s assistance. Hancock leaves the prison just in time to intervene at a bank robbery. He eventually saves the day and the citizens finally start applauding him for his actions and not booing him. He then meets Ray’s wife, Mary, played by Charlize Theron. Hancock soon discovers that she too has the same superpowers as he does and Hancock threatens to tell Ray about her secret and it eventually leads to them fighting each other in Downtown Los Angeles, causing major damage as they fight, all while Ray is watching from a nearby office. Mary gets away and Hancock then gets shot during a liquor store robbery and starts to bleed. He is rushed to the hospital where he was visited by Mary. She tells him that they are about 3,000 years old, are technically married to each other, and are the last of their kind. She tells him that once the two get close to one another, they start losing their powers, which explains why the bullets hurt Hancock. She then tells him that eighty years ago, Hancock cracked his skull, causing him to have amnesia and that she got as far away as possible so that he could heal again. Then the hospital is invaded by the same bank robbers and they end up shooting Hancock and fatally wounding Mary. Then Ray shows up and takes down the bank robbers with a fire axe. Hancock then uses the remainder of his strength to get as far away as possible so that Mary can heal. The next scene cuts to Hancock in New York City where he is a superhero. He is talking to Ray over the phone to catch up on things, and he tells him that Mary had a full recovery and is fine now. As a token of gratitude, he tells Ray to look up at the moon where he painted his previously unsuccessful charity logo on it which would boost Ray’s marketing abilities greatly. This movie had some really great visual effects done to it. The battles that Hancock gets into throughout the movie are done very well and visually amazing. However, the final battle takes the cake. It is done very dramatically where people can sense the rage and fury between Hancock and Mary and was the best scene in the movie. The situations that they put Hancock in were perfect in which it was shot in a real life city and really feel like they could potentially happen in our everyday lives, such as bank robberies, high speed car chases, and getting stuck on the tracks of a railroad during a traffic jam. The director really had a perfect balance of characters development and action and used special effects very well. The movie revolved around two superheroes and didn’t feel very real, since superheroes don’t really exist in real life. However, movies are intended to make your imagination run wild and wonder, “What if this were possible?” The whole point of entertainment, whether it be a TV show, a movie, or a book is to entertain, and this movie did just that, so a sense of realism is not needed in a fictional story or movie. I think that Will Smith played his part as Hancock brilliantly. In the beginning of the movie, he really depicted Hancock’s character well as a drunk that really didn’t care about anything but himself and getting drunk, and throughout the movie his character development was done very well in which Hancock goes through many changes such as redefining his public image, discovering Mary’s abilities, his realization of his mortality, and how he eventually starts caring about himself and for the innocent citizens, for Ray, and especially for Mary. Charlize Theron also played her role very well. Although her character didn’t get as much character development as Will Smith’s character, her time on screen was used very efficiently. When her husband Ray first brings Hancock home, you can sense the surprise on her face and that she has had a past with this strange man her husband brought home. She then goes on to say that she doesn’t want anything to do with Hancock when he keeps asking her questions about who he is. The two of them show great anger and fury during their battle and she soon has a change of heart when she sees that Hancock was mortally wounded by the bullets and finally decides to tell him the truth. Both these characters and their development throughout the story really backs up the theme of the story in which the two characters greatly changed from the beginning to the end and their how they have changed their views on life and the people around them. The major subject to this entire movie was that no matter how bad you’ve screwed up in the past, you can always look to the future and change yourself and change your ways to become a better person. It makes me look at my life; the good, the bad and the ugly. Like any human, I have made mistakes in the past but now I can see that even though I have done some bad things in the past, I can still make up for them by doing good in the present and in the future. All in all, I really enjoyed this movie. I remember the months and weeks leading up to this movie, there was a lot of hype that it would be a great summer blockbuster and would be the movie to see of year. Although it was a very good movie, it didn’t really live up to its hype, which is sad because with the setup and storyline of the movie, it could potentially have done much better than it did. But, I did enjoy the movie and that’s what it really is all about. I hope that there will be a sequel to this movie since the conclusion of the movie was very open ended and leaves the audience thinking if there could possibly be any more to the story.