Where She Dwells.

This question about Hancock has been bothering me a whole lot since last night. The similarity of Mary and Hancock’s background to the vampires in Christopher Pike’s The Last Vampire seemed much too close for comfort, though in this case, it’s originality of the plot.

It was not mentioned what they were, but *if* Mary and Hancock really were vampires, then they shared many traits with Pike’s vampires. Their unfaltering strength, speed and ability to withstand injuries, gunshots, monster trucks, and erratic mood swings (Read: Mary’s) included. Sita, Pike’s vampire, was built that way too. Ok lah, Hancock doesn’t need blood to survive, more like needs only whiskey; but it has been pointed out that Sita could survive for months without killing people for their blood. And the constant donning of sunglasses raises a few eyebrows too. Sunglasses to shield off sunlight, vampires are known to dislike the sunlight.

Though the difference was how Hancock and Mary’s powers are self-destructive when they start to come into close proximity with each other was a fresh take that I don’t believe I’ve seen in movies before. Usually the woman is the provider of support. I.e., Spiderman gathers strength from within when MJ is in her helpless vulnerable mode.

What really struck me with this movie were Hancock’s acknowledgement, apology and acceptance of his acts of damage. Ok, it may have been a publicity act but you don’t see Spiderman and Harry Osborne taking responsibility over the damages they caused to the building while fighting the sandman creature and the weird parasite thing in Spiderman 2, right? Though obviously Hancock’s damage can be said to be almost on par with Hulk, no one has seen the Hulk come forth and apologize, right? So that’s my point. Hancock is human after all, despite being a superhero.

On the point of Hancock being human after all, there’s one formula that’s all too predictable in their existence. And that’s love, the kind that has a red heart on the surface of the moon. Hollywood will be Hollywood in the sense that love prevails. They need love, and they are especially fond of happy endings. Similarly with Pike’s The Last Vampire, Sita was able to break the rules because she had Krishna’s grace, “Wherever there is love, there is my grace”. She thus survived becoming a vampire, killing vampires; all in the name of love. So you see, love. They’re full of it.

All in all, Will Smith’s performance in Hancock is, in my opinion, a job well done. The movie was hilarious at many many countless points, interlocked with Hancock’s poignant life and love story, the true account behind the superhero that everyone loves to hate and the publicity stunt that worked, which we love to hate too, if we are not the PRs responsible.

I may be reaching for thin air here, but was Hancock a vampire?

* Christopher Pike’s The Last Vampire is a 6 book sexology, (what comes after trilogy anyway?! Oh. Tetralogy. No terms for a six book set wor. So I’m calling it a sexology.)