In a summer of no less than five superhero movies, Hancock is the only original screen creation, not taken from the pages of a comic book. Key traits of the lead character might seem familiar, since we are now accustomed to superheroes who drink (Iron Man), rage (Hulk), wise-crack (Hellboy), and remain at odds with the society (Batman). But by combining these traits, Hancock becomes someone we haven’t seen in superhero duds before.

Just as likely to be passed out on a park bench, dirty watch cap pulled over eyes, as rescuing citizens from harm, John Hancock (Will Smith) is not well liked in his native Los Angeles. When he is motivated to fight crime and disaster with such powers as flight, super-strength, and invulnerability, his carelessness usually costs millions of dollars in property damage. He’s jeered on sight and berated on the TV news (even by Nancy Grace!)  Shades of Watchmen and The Incredibles are detectable in this public dislike, but Hancock doesn’t need to fight an oppressive system. Instead, a change in his own attitude and some positive press are all that’s required.

It’s good fortune that during one of his botched acts of heroics, Hancock moves Ray Embrey’s car from rail tracks before it’s crushed by an oncoming train. Ray (Jason Bateman) is a P.R. specialist whose ideas aren’t flying with big-business clients. He offers Hancock an image makeover, which the hero grudgingly accepts.

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Starring: Will Smith, Jason Bateman Charlize Theron

Directed by: Peter Berg

Written by: Vincent Ngo, Vince Gilligan

Meaningful glances are exchanged between Ray’s wife Mary (Charlize Theron) and Hancock when he’s invited to meet the family. Hancock offers up advice to Ray’s son Aaron, advising him to fight back against bullies and not get “punked” in prison.

Woe to those who bully Hancock when he volunteers to serve a prison sentence, since he can follow through on seemingly impossible threats. As Ray predicts, the city calls him back when needed, and in successfully preventing a bank robbery, he begins to regain the people’s trust.

In an inventive twist, as all seems to be going well for Hancock, Mary reveals the secrets of his past, which change the cast dynamics and add sexual tension to the film’s latter half.

One might expect Will Smith to turn on the goofball charm given this opportunity, but his straight portrayal of a man self-loathing and lonely gives the film most of its emotional power. He still get lots of one-liners, but they’re delivered with a snarl rather than a wink, and this heightens the humour. Definitely a brown-bag drinker, his alcoholism isn’t glamorized, and his AA statement stops at ” I drink and stuff.”

The film’s gritty language and violence - which benefit the theme - are somewhat undermined by the PG-13 rating. The MPAA originally bestowed an R which led to cuts. (One has to wonder what would please a ratings board concerned about such things as “flying under the influence.”) As such, Hancock appears milder than he logically should be. Still, he’s far from squeaky-clean, and when he shows affection and courtesy, it represents change.

Jason Bateman brings his usual everyman quality to the piece, playing off well against Smith while getting guffaws himself. Charlize Theron readily goes from demure to vamp, though casting someone of her Oscar-winning caliber and Aeon Flux genre history is a bit of a spoiler in itself. She will not be content to remain a housewife.

Missing in Hancock’s roster is a villain, with slighted bank robber Red Parker (Eddie Marsan) hardly representing a worthy foe. Since this summer’s super villains have been appearing in the form of  larger, uglier versions of the heroes (Iron Man, Hulk) or their diametric opposites (The Dark Knight), it’s refreshing that Hancock doesn’t end in a smash-up, but instead forces its lead to succumb to human weakness.

Also MIA is a laborious scientific explanation for Hancock’s powers. It’s okay to leave him as a mysterious being, once known as a “god or angel”, and now in the modern era, a superhero.  Tom Wolfe made the same link between the heroes of Classical mythology and those of comic books in ’60s counterculture classic The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.

The right mix of fun, feeling, and novel ideas, Hancock gives one hope that dimensions of the superhero remain to be explored, in film as readily as in comics.