I had such high hopes for this film. Still, it;'s living proof that anythng starring Will Smith will make money. Even if it's silly.

The idea of superhero’s being sued, and their actions having dire consequences for which they might be held accountable, was first mooted in The Incredibles. It's a fun idea, and for the first half of Hancock is explored with wit and charm, as Will Smith manages to make the obnoxious drunkard, Hancock, as likable as he can be.

When we first meet Hancock, he’s asleep on a park bench, woken by a small child who tells him he has to stop a crime in progress. A very hung-over Hancock does this, causing no end of damage along the way, his efforts unappreciated by the citizens of Los Angeles who are currently suing him for millions, because of his ham-fisted crime-fighting methods.

Enter one Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman) a PR man out to save the world, whose car is stuck on a railway track with a train bearing down on top of him. Saved in the nick of time by Hancock, Ray decides to repay the favour by giving our superhero an image makeover.

Ray takes Hancock home to meet the missus, Mary (Charlize Theron), who isn’t too enamoured of her husband’s plans to redeem this most lost of lost causes.

And then, as if that script writer left the building and someone else took over, the story takes a left turn and from there on in, the film has the feel of being made up as it goes along. With increasingly absurd plot twists that feel contrived to say the least, director Peter Berg (The Kingdom) gives us a movie that barrels along with lots a fabulous CGI violence and mayhem and not a lot else, undoing all the clever subtlety of the first half. It’s hard to discuss this without giving the twist away, and while I thought it was implausible and well, downright silly, there are enough people out there who’ll want to see this movie themselves, that it would be unfair of me to spoil it.

In the end, Hancock is entertaining, but only if you’re in the mood for something that trips so far into the absurd, you have to suspend all disbelief, because there is nothing plausible left by the end of the movie on which to hang a plot.