Kim and Josh Agree to Agree

Able to bring warring critics together in a single summer movie...

Well, I think you were smirking when you suggested Will Smith in skin-tight rubber superhero suiting might broker a peace between us… but that’s exactly what happened. Behold the awesome power that is the Fresh Prince, now and forever.

I resisted Hancock a touch in the beginning. Some of the early music choices felt distracting, and frankly, not enough seemed to be happening in the first act. But then we began to better know the three leads – the raging drunk, reluctant superhero Hancock (Smith), do-gooder PR man Ray (Jason Bateman), who wants to help Hancock turn his bad press around, and Ray’s wife, Mary (Charlize Theron), who takes an instant dislike to Hancock – and the film opens up and deepens in surprising ways.

Director Peter Berg shoots their relationship interactions with shaky cam, extreme closeup, partially obstructed framing – as if, as David Denby put it (in one of the few positive reviews Hancock garnered), “he were making a Cassavetes psychodrama.”

And then of course there’s the game-changing twist…

It’s funny – just yesterday I argued that effective superhero movies establish the rules of the universe early and stick to them. Yeah, Hancock could give a shit about my rules for rules. Midway through, it’s revealed that Ray’s wife is also a superhero – or rather an immortal, one who spent most of eternity as Hancock’s wife. She can fly, too, though she prefers modes of transport more suitable to her soccer mom cover. But she doesn’t appear to have the innate ability to save lives like Hancock. I say “appear” because, as our post-discussion revealed, we were both pretty puzzled by some of the plot twists and the two immortals' origin story. (Was the guy with the claw part of some bigger picture, immortal plane conspiracy? What did Mary mean when she said “they” were always trying to get them? How come Mary didn’t do some saving of her own? She seemed just as fit for the job as Hancock. And what was with Mary loading up on the leather and heavy Kohl eyelining when she first revealed the extent of her powers? Did she think no one would take her seriously in her Valley housewife threads?)

The thing is, I didn’t much care about the plot problematics. Hancock is imperfect, for sure, but also surprisingly ambitious for a popcorn movie – not to mention funny and sweet and possessing of a corker of a cross-cutting final scene. Although I could have done without the image of Michael Bluth with an ax in his hands…

So why did most of the nation’s critics hate on it so much?

By the way, I noticed today's vote tally has evened into a dead heat between us. Congratulations on the surge. It must have been all the Red River fanboys who rallied to your defense.

See you tomorrow.