Jonah Hex Movie Review

MOVIE REVIEW: JONAH HEX

06/17/10

SYNOPSIS: Jonah Hex (Josh Brolin) is a scarred drifter and bounty hunter of last resort, a tough and stoic gunslinger who can track down anyone...and anything. Having survived death, Jonah's violent history is steeped in myth and legend, and has left him with one foot in the natural world and one on the "other side." His only human connection is with Lila (Megan Fox), whose life in a brothel has left her with scars of her own. Jonah's past is about to catch up with him when the U.S. military makes him an offer he can't refuse: in exchange for his freedom from the warrants on his head, he must track down and stop the dangerous terrorist Quentin Turnbull (John Malkovich). But Turnbull, who is gathering an army and preparing to unleash Hell, is also Jonah's oldest enemy and will stop at nothing until Jonah is dead. Based on the legendary character from the graphic novels, "Jonah Hex" is an epic adventure thriller about one man's personal quest for redemption against the vast canvas of the battle between good and evil.

REVIEW: So here we go with another comic book “hero” rendition for the big screen. This time it’s a DC Comics character and he’s played by the currently very popular Josh Brolin. He’s been busy lately doing all kinds of roles from cowboy to President so it should be no surprise that he takes the lead in this one as Jonah Hex. Can I tell you that the movie needed him? He helped carry the movie and the movie needed carrying. I don’t think you could have gotten a better performance given the context and content. Almost equally as important to the carrying of this movie was John Malkovich as Quentin Turnbull, Jonah’s nemesis. John can play a mean villain by far. He is cold, calculated, and merciless. It reminded me of his performance in Con Air. And then there’s Megan. Of course she’s looking gorgeous as always but I was hoping that she’d be more than just eye candy in this film . . . not. Her character had very little depth and purpose and her involvement seemed mostly consequential so you don’t really relate to her character as much, ergo she was mostly eye candy. Now as far as the movie goes, well, let’s put it this way, it reminded me a lot of both Nick Cage’s Ghost Rider and Will Smith’s Wild, Wild, West. I will be as bold as to say that both those movies were better than this one with the exception of Brolin’s and Malkovich’s performances. It just seems cheaper, weaker, and too much of a cookie cutter production. And I say all this being a die hard fan of virtually any comic book character being brought to the big screen. In other words, I really wanted to like this film more than I do.

This is another one of your typical vengeance upon vengeance stories and there’s nothing wrong with that because at least for me, I don’t get tired of a good vengeance story. The problem with this one is that the way the story was presented seemed to lack substance or to use an Alice in Wonderland term, “muchness”. A lot of that might be due to the fact that character development is not one of this picture’s strong points. So even though the performances were good, the characters themselves were shallow. But on a positive note, the gunplay was quite good even with Megan. The cinematography, sets, locations, costumes, and props were all good and appropriate. The special effects were tasteful as in not over the top, especially for this genre. The true art work can be found on Jonah’s face. Wow, that was impressive work, reminiscent of the work on Aaron Eckhart as Two Face Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight. This was quite a departure for Director Jimmy Hayward who has mostly worked on animated films and directed Horton Hears a Who . . . and it shows. As far as this year’s summer blockbusters go, this does not need to be at the top of your movies-to-see list.