Samaritan: Movie Review

Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Pilou Asbaek, Javon 'Wanna' Walton

Director: Julius Avery

Granite City, Michigan - a city on the edge.

After years of depression, the city's a powderkeg and was once the scene of a legendary showdown between superheroes Samaritan and Nemesis. Twin brothers, whose moral paths went different ways after their parents were murdered in a house fire, they were involved in one final showdown of good vs evil.

Ending in their apparent demise, Javon Walton's Sam believes that it's not true and Samaritan survived the fatal showdown. Trapped in grimy apartment blocks, Sam's a dreamer and his fantasy is further fuelled by an obsession with Stallone's refuse worker Joe....

Samaritan has promise.

The idea of a superhero living the life of a recluse in our midst isn't a bad one at all. And certainly the aging superhero trope is a genre barely explored on the big screen, despite finding its way more into comic lore.

Whereas a film like Logan explored that concept with depth, Samaritan is more interested in the idea of saddling Stallone's  character with a fatherless kid who's looking for a father figure, and trying to sow the seeds of a city-wide insurgency.

And then rarely doing anything new with it.

As the villain, Asbaek has little to do except deliver a character less take on Tom Hardy's Bane - even down to the costuming. Stallone fares equally badly too skulking around in a Hoodie jacket combo you already saw Bruce Willis modeling in Unbreakable.

That's the frustration of Samaritan - it feels so familiar and so rote that it barely offers anything new.

Narratively, there comes a point when you realize the only to enliven proceedings would be to do one simple thing.

But when the film does that (too spoilers to discuss here), it doesn't help the story come to life.

Samaritan may have has promise and allure  but despite its namesake, this is not a film to be charitable about - it's a frequently tiresome affair.