I love how Will Smith portrayed his character in this film. The posters and the first shots of him are so raw, so grisly, so un-Hollywood, it gave his character a sense of reality. Even when he got all cleaned up, he did not look like the Will Smith we were expecting to see. Which is a good thing, IMO.
I think I really appreciated the emotional depth conveyed by Will Smith's Hancock; you could feel the tension as he grappled with the pain of not being loved or liked, of being abandoned. He defense mechanism is "I don't care", but it is obvious he really does. Which makes the drama that much more pungent as Charlize Theron's character (Mary Embrey) gets more involved on screen.
However, at the same time, when Mary comes out of the closet (so to speak), I think the movie quickly went downhill. Even in the earlier parts of the movie, I was disappointed by the special effects/CG when Hancock flies around with an SUV in his hands, and finally drops it on a spire. It gets worse when Mary and Hancock start going at it. It just comes across as so fake. Part of it is the utter lack of reality. It is one thing for someone to have superpowers, but when natural laws of "cause and effect" are suspended, I start to loose my connection. For instance, flying through the air with an SUV.... that heavy thing is going to fall apart quick. Hitting a kid so hard he flies a couple miles into the atmosphere? And catching him when he lands? Purely cartoonish - the Gs would kill him.
I did like the concept; a superhero type of race that loose their powers when they pair up, thus making population growth a foregone conclusion. The struggle to stay apart, constantly fighting the magnetism of wanting to know one of your own. And the message of using one's powers responsibly was a good one, but not well cemented.
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