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| A Hero, maybe |
A Review of Samaritan by Nick Olszyk
Distribution Service: Amazon Prime
MPAA Rating, PG-13
CNS Rating, Unrated at the Time of This Review
Reel Rating, Two Reels
Disclaimer: Spoilers Ahead
The
superhero genre is so over
saturated that an original film must bring a supernaturally compelling spin
just to be noticed. Samaritan attempts this feat with “a dark, new take”
in the words of the Bragi Schut, the graphic novel author, and a last-minute
plot twist. That Samaritan, a PG-13 film, is darker than the usual fare
is laughable. Batman Returns was darker thirty years ago, much less Sin
City or The Killing Joke. The plot twist, while admittedly
intriguing, isn’t revolutionary. The result is a mediocre film by solely cinematic
standards and pure garbage compared to the slew of established franchises.
The
first mistake is that nearly half the story is told via exposition in the first
five minutes, and all the information could have been organically gleaned
through the rest of the narrative anyway. Granite City (aka Gotham aka
Metropolis) is a city in crisis with rising crime rates and unrest. The villain
Nemesis seeks to throw the city into further chaos while Samaritan, his twin
brother, saves people and fights his sibling. Their powers are essentially
those of Mr. Incredible – super strength and indestructibility. In a final
showdown, Nemesis attempts to destroy Granite City’s main power station and
kill Samaritan with a magic hammer. Evenly matched, the plant goes up in flames,
killing both…or so we are told.
Twenty
years later, Granite City is still facing Detroit levels of urban deterioration.
Sam (Javon Walton) is a spunky ten-year old convinced that Samaritan is still
alive. When Joe (Sylvester Stallone), a local garbage collector, rescues him
from a gang of bullies, he suspects the disgruntled hobo might be the hero in
hiding. His hopes are confirmed dramatically when Joe is hit by a speeding car
and comes out unscathed. The timing couldn’t be better as local gang leader
Cyrus (Pilou Asbæk) steals Nemesis’ mask and assumes his identity. He
starts a violent uprising against the city, leading to an inevitable clash with
the now much older metahuman.
Samaritan
is, above else, painfully dull. It has stretches of forced dialogue and silly
subplots. The action sequences take forever and mostly involved random tugs
shooting frivolously at Joe. Once it is established that bullets can’t stop a
man, why would you keep shooting for the next hour? The narrative is a
Frankenstein patchwork of better superhero films like Split, Man of
Steel, and Hancock. Thematically, Cyrus is a carbon coy of Bane from
The Dark Knight Rises, leading a Bolshevik revolution through a deep
voice and black mask. The only thing that slightly raises the bar is a decent plot
twist, which will now be revealed to save you from a viewing.
At
the climax, as the central characters battle, it is revealed that Joe is
actually Nemesis – not Samaritan. Joe tells Sam that Samaritan had the
opportunity to kill him but spared his life only to die in the fire himself.
This inspired Joe/Nemesis to give up his life of crime and atone in anonymity. “You
think there is good and bad people,” he tells Sam, “but there isn’t. Everyone
is both.” There’s a central truth to this in Catholic morality. Everyone is born
with original sin but capable of becoming good through the grace of Jesus
Christ. Some of the greatest saints were the greatest sinners in their youth,
and many evil men began their reigns of terror trying to right legitimate
wrongs. Unfortunately, this message isn’t well fleshed out and undermined by
the brutal and sometimes unnecessary ways Joe kills his victims.
The
film ends with a “noble lie” of Sam telling the media that Samaritan has
returned, giving hope to a failing city. It would have been better to tell the
truth: no man is automatically damned, thus no city automatically fated for
ruin. There are a few nuggets of potential in Samaritan, but it’s weighed
down by shoddy and predictable storytelling. Better stick with the Good
Samaritan; He will save you in the end.
This article first appeared in Catholic World Report on September 12th, 2022.
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