"For every evil under the sun, there is a remedy or there is none.
If there be one, seek till you find it; If there be none, never mind it."

---Mother Goose

Watched Hancock yesterday. For a superhero film it certainly left an impression. I'm strangely philosophical and mournful about it.


The movie didn't sit well with me on several levels. Much of my dissatisfaction lay with the idea that mortality, growing old together, and being hurt is a gift for Hancock and Mary. That Hancock and Mary can’t be together despite the love they have for one another, because apparently being in love and together means weakness and death, being a hero means you have to be alone. It isn’t bad, it is just a world view that I disagree with.

Also, the use of mortality and/or human emotions as a gift for immortal beings in fiction doesn’t sit well with me. It feels like deceit, a way for us, humans, to feel good about our lives, to create meaning where they may be none.

It is difficult to articulate what I feel for this movie because yes, it is definitely a Saturday pop-corn film, but at the same time I feel like it was trying to say something else but got horribly confused in its message. Because if you think about it Mary will survive her mortal husband, but it doesn’t, can’t go anywhere further because Hancok and Mary want to protect each other, which means they can’t be together. Because being together means pain and death.

The whole thing is frustrating because it can work a super hero film, but it doesn’t because the ‘final fight’ with the bad guys isn’t even the climax, the climax is Hancock flying away and Mary’s hear re-starting and taking her first breath. It isn’t a traditional romance film because Mary doesn’t end up with Hancock because she is obviously in love with her mortal husband. So, then what?

In conclusion; good film, just don't over think like I did.