From Marvel Comics to DC Comics to the endless supply of content that “deconstructs” the idea of superheroes across-the-board, caped crusaders have unfortunately become a massive part of our culture. The most puzzling aspect of our superhero-obsessed culture is how so many people despise the idea of traditional heroes and villains. As Nihilism has become the default philosophy in Western Society, many people have turned their nose to the thought of what traditional superheroes represent because in the world that they have created heroism is a flawed idea.
The deconstruction of the superhero is something that has become popular with the Amazon Prime show “The Boys” and Amazon is also the home of the latest superhero adjacent project produced by Sylvester Stallone. This is not a film that adopts the nihilistic reality of Seth Rogen. Stallone’s old-school approach that there’s good and bad in every person and it’s up to them to make the right decision makes “Samaritan” a more realistic approach than what we have seen before.
In a film that was supposed to come out years ago that experienced several delays due to the coronavirus outbreak, Samaritan is a film that touches on the same conflict of heroes and villains that many other superhero contents have done in the past. The film cultivates the story of two brothers who find themselves on opposite sides of the superhero conflict. In modern contrast, we have 2 characters who idolize these brothers from different perspectives. We have Sam, a young but naive teenager who grew up idolizing the heroic attributes of the Samaritan. On the flip side, you have the main villain Cyrus who grew up idolizing nemesis, because in his mind Samaritan was the villain the entire time.
Both of these characters come across Stallone’s character of Joe, who was the only one who knows the true nature of both Samaritan and Nemesis, important details of the store are Lost in Translation. Stallone as a man who was in the Twilight of his career fully embraced being the underestimated old man in the story.
The film is full of colorful and over-the-top characters but for the sake of the story most of them are not as flash out as they need to be the true land home. take the character of Cyrus for example, Cyrus the contrast to Sam on the villain side of the story, however, we’re only told how much he idolizes the character of Nemesis and we’re not showing the impact that that character had on his personality. The film fumbles Lee potential of a number of characters including Sophia Tatum as Sil who isn’t given anything more than being a textbook baddie. The flushing out of characters of the difference would have turned this from a good movie to a great movie.
Well, the final details of the story can be used for some polishing, “Samaritan” finishes the film with a very strong third Act full of intense action, conflict, and a pretty entertaining twist that turns the dynamic of a story on its axis. The film doesn’t go full Punisher and instead opts to mix The superhero dilemma with old-school Urban vigilante cinema.
Stallone fans are going to get more of their fix of “The Expendables” star to get their money’s worth. Stallone delivers some great lines of dialogue throughout the film to make for an enjoyable streaming film.
“If it were only bad people doing bad things, it would be easy to get rid of them. But the real truth is: that good and bad live in everybody’s heart. It’s up to you to make the right choice — and I know you will.”
In case you’re living under a rock there isn’t a whole lot to be excited about as far as 2022 film releases go. So if you’re tired of watching Top Gun Maverick for the fifth time this year, you would be better served to check out Sylvester Stallone in one of the biggest Dark Horse hits of the year.
3.5/5
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