Go if you love Smith or Theron

Let’s get off the block quickly by saying that Hancock is a victim of an over-active PR campaign and overhype. Overall, the film is good entertainment. It earned a six-star rating from me on a scale of one to 10.

Frankly, Will Smith is a mis-cast. There’s no other way to put it. He’s too tall for the role of a down-and-out superhero. I have nothing against African-Americans playing this kind of role but Smith was much better in Independence Day (1996). As Hancock, he was basically a hobo. Half the time, he was stoned out of his mind with booze.

He was unkempt, unhygienic and honest to goodness, quite unlikeable. Although, in real life Will Smith is actually quite a sweetie, or so I was told by E! and gossip magazines.

The story is lame. Who can believe that a selected group of superheroes have been roaming for untold ages until they all died one by one and left only two behind? There was no rational explanation for such a phenomenon. Nobody in the film explained it.

The unexpected superhero or heroine turned out to be Charlize Theron’s character, Mary, who was the wife of Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman). You can take it from a biased viewer and also a Charlize fan that the tall, attractive South African stole the show from Smith.

Initially, I had a bit of problem identifying Theron. Goodness, I didn’t recognise her but I knew she was someone familiar. In an unglamourised housewife role, the miscue was soon corrected. But Theron is always eye-candy in any film. Ask any warm-blooded man.

The saving grace about Hancock is the special effects or the CGI. They are great. But there was nothing entertaining about Hancock knocking into buildings, smashing cars and windows and ruining surfaces of tarred roads each time he takes flight.

The story about how the superhero got his name was ludicrous. Apparently, about 80 years ago, he lost his memory in an incident and a hospital worker asked him to put his “John Hancock” on an official form. Since, he couldn’t remember anything, John Hancock came in just handy. And thus, Hancock was “born”.

Read no further if you want to enjoy the film. The following is a spoiler. Mary Embrey turned out to be his superhero better half. They were life partners for centuries. And the catch was, every time they were together, they began to lose their super powers. That is, until they became human. It seems that it was a lesson for them to experience humanity.

But once they were apart, their superpowers returned with amazing speed. So your guess is pretty good, if you come to a speedy conclusion about the ending.

Anyway, Will Smith is always good for a laugh and Charlize Theron is fine in full cinema version.

By the way, the evening began with a full-scale security check by uniformed personnel at the entrance to the various cinema halls. I always get the full treatment because of my humungus belt buckle.

Copyright is always a big issue at charity premieres. It turned out to be a real “hot” show in no time. Not because the film was Oscar material but someone forgot to switch on the air-conditioning to full strength. As a result, most of us were sweating in the cinema hall. I was told Ironman beat this by a mile!