Will Smith does it again, ‘Hancock’ delivers $66 million weekend at box office, $107M since opening

I liked the concept of Hancock from the moment I saw the first teaser. The concept of deadbeat superhero had not been truly treated on screen since Superman 3. And I don’t remember Superman drinking his liquor straight out of the bottle.

The older I get, the less I expect out of movies. I rarely go to the theater to see movies that receive bad reviews – unless it’s starring a mainly black cast b/c they always get C+ or worse. I stayed away from reviews of Hancock, but I did see enough to know there was a big plot twist.

I’ll stay away from spoiling the movie, but I will say that I really enjoyed Hancock. It gave me what I look for in movies; I laughed often, there were things that made me think, and in the end I felt my time was well spent. And of course Will was on point, just as he was in the surprisingly excellent I Am Legend.

It didn’t follow the regular superhero which was good for most of the film. Just when I thought I might be tired of Hancock the finally started. That’s always good for me. Too short is better than too long in my book any day.

Yet my one disappointment was that Hancock lacked the one element that is present every great movie of the genre: a really good bad guy.

I always suggest seeing a movie like Hancock in a theater if possible. It’s big, but not quite epic in the vein of Potter or even Legend which made an empty New York seem cavernous on screen. It’s Will Smith’s 5th movie to open July 4th at #1, and eighth straight number No. 1 opening overall.