10 Awesome Opening Scenes In Otherwise Terrible Action Movies

6. A Drunken Rescue - Hancock

X Men Origins Wolverine Opening
Sony

Hancock, which stars Will Smith as a troubled superhero, came out in 2008, the same year as Iron Man and The Dark Knight;.

This sideways look at the hero genre happened right as the format was beginning to take off, so it should have been a total smash. Sadly, the only thing that got smashed were Hancock's wine bottles.

The movie starts off strong, exploring Smith's character's fears of responsibility and the trauma that led him to this point in his life, but everything gets a little weird once it is revealed that there's another deranged superhero in town.

Hancock lost all sense of what it was about and ended in a big, crumpled mess.

A great opening scene should convey to an audience exactly what's going on and who is involved in a story. Hancock does this very well, as the titular "hero" clumsily attempts to apprehend a car full of baddies whilst causing untold mayhem in the process.

Some of the jokes haven't aged well, but there is a solid opening scene here. It's tight, it's focused, and it's fun to watch.

Big ticks all round.

Contributor
Contributor

Jacob Simmons has a great many passions, including rock music, giving acclaimed films three-and-a-half stars, watching random clips from The Simpsons on YouTube at 3am, and writing about himself in the third person.