Hancock (Rated)

Although Will Smith has become as visible on an Independence Day weekend as the American flag, he may be facing a bit of a challenge if early reviews of his latest movie, Hancock, are any indication. "This movie fails so spectacularly -- and on so many levels -- that it''s like watching a train plummet off a bridge," writes Lou Lumenick in the New York Post. Smith himself gets a pass from critics for his portrayal of an alcoholic everyman with superpowers who has little interest in saving humanity -- a kind of super anti-hero. "It''s a strange feeling to see the summer''s most promising premise self-destruct into something bizarre and unsatisfying, but that is the Hancock experience," writes Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times. ***or*** as Claudia Puig puts it in USA Today: "The finished product is so poorly conceived and misguided that even Will Smith, with all his charm, can''t save it." Likewise Michael Phillips comments in the Chicago Tribune: "Not even Smith''s charisma can mitigate the chaos that is Hancock." Nevertheless, the film does get a few so-so reviews. Peter Howell writes in the Toronto Star: "Hancock is still worth seeing, if only for a glimpse of what might have been a truly innovative idea." And Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times gives the movie three stars and concludes that it''s "a lot of fun, if perhaps a little top-heavy with stuff being destroyed." Stephen Hunter in the Washington Post writes that the movie "turns out to be one of the strangest freak shows to arrive since the mermaid, the monkey-faced boy and Rip the wonder peanut. In fact, the most powerful amusement it generates is trying to figure out what thinking went behind it, what executive leap of faith justified its reportedly $150 million budget." Like other critics Michael Sragow in the Baltimore Sun, enjoyed the opening of the film but was disappointed with the rest of it and particularly the ending twist. "If only they had found a way to untwist their story, they might have come up with an ending that didn''t leave audiences feeling screwed," he writes. And Mick LaSalle in the San Francisco Chronicle concludes: "Hancock is more intelligent than most summer blockbusters and features at its center a thought-out and committed performance by Will Smith. But in the end it''s merely almost good."