Given “Hancock’s” trailer, I think, many were expecting a funny summer popcorn film. In essence that’s what you’ll get; there are plenty of one-liners, action, and it’s all jammed packed into 90 minutes. As a whole, after seeing it, I can say that the action is fun, the one-liners are funny, but it’s a messy film, unsure in which direction it wants to go in.

On paper, “Hancock” is a cool concept. You got a foul-mouthed hero, half drunk, nonchalantly damaging property as he saves us from the bad guys. Unfortunately, his antics aren’t worshipped like he wants and this just adds to his disinterest in a simple thing, like caring. What he needs is a new image, perhaps a PR guy. All of this stuff is awesome. Will Smith handles Hancock’s foul-mouthed persona well, adding layers any other actor wouldn’t do, creating a new character worth investing into. The same can be said about the PR guy, Jason Bateman, milking his character’s worth well. Their chemistry is fine, a typical funny man/straight man routine at times and this is where the film excels. If the screenwriters would’ve kept this the film’s main plot, we would have had that fun, breezy, summer blockbuster as the trailer seemed to suggest.

The true messy aspect of the film comes in the second act, when we get the origin story, so to speak. Here the film tries to explain too much too soon and we left with a couple for faults of the film: a rushed set up to the climax and an odd, but predictable twist. Coming in, like I said at 90 minutes, there is not a lot of time to add back story or enough time to handle this twist. It’s kind of just thrown out there and we are just going to have to accept it. If the film was 20 or so minutes longer, they could’ve handled this thoroughly.

Also in this section of the film, goes away the comedic elements, since it’s now handling this twist and Hancock is now assumed to be seen in a positive light now. By the time the climax rolls around, it’s rushed and given in a traditional terms. The real fault of the film is the screenwriters, as they had an almost great popcorn film, with some novelty ideas for a superhero. I felt Hancock and the public relations aspect is the film, not to degenerate him into an average superhero with a typical “big bad” to stop. Adding to some of its messiness is over editing during the action sequences. Again, I wish directors would stop using Michael Bay as an action model; we get no sense of location as they keep cutting the action into a handful of shots. Think “Transformers” and you’ll get what I’m talking about.

All in all, it’s not a bad film, just one that needed more polish before it was filmed, because I wouldn’t mind people or kids talking about Hancock over some heroes. I think due to the holiday weekend, Will Smith’s name, and a good marketing campaign the film will be successful, but after a riveting sci-fi fable like “I am Legend” was, “Hancock” is a bit of a letdown, especially since it’s only half of a good film.