I wanted to go into Hancock knowing as little as possible, so I deliberately avoided reading anything about it -- at least, as much as that was possible given the amount of movie blog reading I do on a daily basis. Nonetheless, it was hard to miss that early reviews trickling in from places like Variety and Hollywood Reporter were not, shall we say, overly positive. On the other hand, several of those reviews were written by people who often seem to have cinematic tastes directly opposite mine, so I wasn't too dissuaded.

And I'm glad I wasn't, because I'm here to tell you Hancock is both an enjoyable film and one of Will Smith's best performances ever, even if it is a bit schizophrenic in its execution. The film starts out as one thing -- all we know is we're getting a film about a grumpy, alcoholic guy with super powers who's awfully deficient in the social skills department. The film opens on a scene right out of COPS: three bad guys leading police on a chase down an LA freeway, firing away on police and other cars. In between shots of the action, we see a disheveled guy snoozing drunkenly on a park bench.

Next thing we know, we see the guy go all superhero, only it's not exactly the kind of superhero action we're used to. This guy flies fast, but with no grace; he crash-lands drunkenly; he blows through a highway sign, ripping it into huge chunks of shrapnel, and more or less creates the effect of a bombing run on the section of town where he finally captures the bad guys. Three bad guys caught, but millions of dollars in property damage; people aren't grateful for the superhero's assistance in taking the bad guys down -- they're pissed. Meet Hancock.

Hancock's not your ordinary superhero. He's a study in contradictions: he's physically invulnerable, but clearly about as messed up emotionally as they come; he stops bad guys, but no one appreciates him; he desperately needs to connect with people, but deliberately acts so abrasively that he repels everyone he comes in contact with. He' s not a superhero, he's a classic antihero.

What does Hancock need? A new image, of course, and fortunately help comes his way when he rescues Ray (Jason Bateman), an idealistic PR guy. Ray decides to pay Hancock back by being his PR rep and helping him revamp his image. Hancock, who has no friends and no family, finds himself drawn to the sense of love and family Ray has with his young son, Aaron, and his wife, Mary (Charlize Theron).

So everything's chugging along, and we kind of think we know more or less where the story is heading, and then --Bam! -- it slams on the brakes and makes a hard left turn out of nowhere, and before we can really wrap our heads around what just happened and what implication it has on the entire story, we're immersed in a pretty kick-ass superhero action scene. And somewhere around this, we get the feeling that maybe this film just took a turn into wickedly dark comedic territory -- which it almost, but not quite does.

And it's too bad, because we see the elements there, all set up and polished off and just waiting to go down that track, and it doesn't happen. Perhaps during the film's numerous rewrites, something got lost in the translation or pulled off the storyboard, and instead of taking a right fork at Dark Comedy, the story takes the left fork toward Romantic Action Flick. Which is okay; once I got past my fleeting disappointment that I wasn't going to get the dark comedy I'd hoped, I settled into what the movie actually was; it turned out to be pretty darn good, but still somewhat less intriguing than where I thought things were heading. And I'm sorry if all this seems a little obtuse, but I don't want to give away any spoilers here; when you see the film yourself, it'll all make sense, and then you can come back here and let us know what you thought about the storyline.

Smith's performance, as aforesaid, is top-notch; I really prefer him in more serious roles like this -- and for all that the marketing folks are billing the film as a comedy superhero flick, there's really far more psychological drama in this film than comedy. It's entertaining, it's engaging, but it's hardly what I'd call "funny." Much as I enjoy Smith in his wise-cracking, smart-ass, "Fresh Prince" mode, what I really love from him are these darker, more layered performances, and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of Smith in this film. Perhaps it's my affection for troubled, artsy, complicated men -- Hancock kind of reminds me of a lot of guys I dated in my twenties -- but I find Smith far more appealing when he's playing a flawed, vulnerable character.

Theron turns in her usual credible performance, as a character who's more complex than she initially seems on the surface. My one complaint with her is I hated the way the makeup designer overused makeup to convey particular aspects of Mary's character; Theron's a top-notch actress who doesn't need makeup tricks to pull of this character, and I found it distracting. Bateman continues to charm as the blissfully idealistic Ray, who believes in Hancock and wants to help him re-create his image, starting with how he thinks about himself.

The film had to be re-tooled to tone it down from the "R" rating the MPAA was going to slap it with. The studio, no doubt wanting to score that all-important teen market to boost the box office numbers, complied with the MPAA's request and slashed some flagged scenes, managing to finally score a more desirable PG-13. One word of warning for parents (and anyone who's easily offended by harsh language): while I didn't hear any "F-bombs" dropped in the film, and there's no full-on nudity, the word "asshole" is used extensively. A group of middle-aged women at the screening last night felt compelled to approach the PR guy to tell him they were offended by "all that cursing"; if you're the type to be so offended, be forewarned.

Perhaps the reportedly extensive script doctoring, the numerous changes in director before the film finally started filming, and the pressure to stay PG-13 took a bit of a toll on the story arc overall; there are places where the fabric of suspension of disbelief is stretched paper thin and starts to give a bit. I'd love to get my hands on Vincent Ngo's original script, just to see how different the final film is from the idea that birthed it.

Peter Berg's direction also deserves a mention; he directed (among other things) Friday Night Lights, a film I enjoyed way more than I ever thought I would, and he brings a similar sensibility to his direction on Hancock. He also does a nice job of showing rather than telling -- we see through Hancock's actions that this is a man who's deeply troubled, but not without hope of redemption. Much as I liked Hancock, though, what I really want now is for the potential future DVD to include the director's cut; I'd like to see what Berg's vision looked like before it was changed in the name of a PG-13 rating. Overall though, in spite of its flaws, I very much enjoyed Hancock, for both its interesting and creative storytelling and Smith's great lead performance. It's not as awesome as Iron Man, but I liked it more than a lot of movies I've seen this summer.