THE credits began to roll, I got out of my cramped space in the semi-darkened cineplex hall. Thirty seconds later, Hancok faded back into view. Hey, the movie hasn't ended yet!

This brings to mind what they did with Constantine as well which starred Keanu Reeves. That one wasn't great. I think it showed at the box office.

Hancock which received a fair amount of publicity prior to its worldwide release was touted, or so I was told, as one of this summer's biggest surprises.

Well folks, I have good and bad news for you. The good news is the CGI is near impressive. Not perfect but impressive and I have seen plenty of those. The bad news is, it is not nearly as good as the PR machine it is.

I like Will Smith. In fact, I liked him since he played that gangly youth in Fresh Prince of Bel Air back in those Jurassic days. Boy, has this boy grown up and he collected some big bucks along the way, too.

As John Hancock, superhero not extraordinaire, Smith is portrayed as a lost soul who suffers from an identity crisis.

A big reason is because he can't remember who he is, where he comes from and he's very tired of fighting criminals on behalf of the cops. Not very inspiring when the general public thinks he's a major nuisance.

Nobody really likes Hancock initially because he keeps piling up the damage caused by his reckless flying into public property. Actually, it surprised me that nobody is surprised by his supernormal powers.

He's impervious to bullets, just like superman. In superman's case, the guy is handsome.
Take for example, Christopher Reeves and Brendan Roth.

Will Smith is no Rudolph Valentino or Brad Pitt so he comes across as an anti-hero as the press release made him out to be.

 I am all for that super-muscled underdog but I thought the script over did it with the vagabond bit and all that self-destructive attitude that seems to permeate through the first 20 minutes of the show.

Then the surprise came, in the form of Charlize Theron, who plays Mary Embrey, wife of Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), the man who's destined to alter the course of Hancock's life.

 Charlize, as any man who cares to know, is a real looker, on and off screen. But in the beginning I nearly didn't recognised her.

She looked like an ordinary person who had a not-so-well-hidden beauty. Minutes later, I almost kicked myself for coming to the realisation that it was the South African beauty who has made many a man's heart aflutter whenever she appears on the screen.

The gem of the entire plot was when it was disclosed that Mary was also a superheroine, except that she has that identity under wraps for centuries.

Yes sirree, Hancock and Mary are superbeings who were put on earth (I think) to learn and live like humans.

Now the convulated storyline unentangles. Hancock and Mary were husband and wife about several lifetimes ago. The big problem was when they were together, they would both negate each other's superpowers.

So for the sake of mankind, they must stay apart, no matter how much they want to be together, or how much they were attracted to each other.

Hancock's plot, in my own humble opinion, is weak. It is entertaining but not spectacularly earth-shaking, in a superman kind of way. I guess you can call it family entertainment.

It is not as mind-boggling as the Matrix trilogy. It is several levels lower. People from all levels will find some enjoyment out of it but it is not even near the Indiana Jones' standard.

I like it to a certain degree but the person next to me gave me a disapproving look when I asked her, how was it.

 I guess that's about sums it up. See it if you have nothing to do but don't expect to think long and deep about it when the show is over.

 Save that for a book on the mysteries of life by Chinese philosopher Chuang Tze.