JONAH HEX has got a lot of things going against it. It is based on an obscure comic book character from DC Comics with a low but faithful fanbase. It is targeted as a western, a genre that is profitable in film history but stigmatized in recent times as box office poison. It features Megan Fox, a movie star that garners execrable backlash with every film that she exists in. And, finally, it was delayed, reshot, and under-marketed to the populace.
The film is now garnered as the token example of the utter failure of this year's summer movie lineup. Though it has many errors in judgment and direction, JONAH HEX is summed up with one of its ending frames: a display of fireworks, bright and somewhat imaginative but fades away quickly for the next batch of mediocre outputs.
In one of the only good performances, Josh Brolin is wisely cast as the titled character, who's origin story is quickly shown in the first scene. A former Confederate officer, played by John Malkovich, murders his family and mutilates his face for his past insubordination. Time jumps ahead after a thoroughly confusing animation sequence, and Hex is a bounty hunter with new but odd supernatural powers. He is asked by the U.S. government to kill Malkovich before he uses his atomic orange cannonballs on America's centennial. Shades of WILD, WILD WEST sadly went through my mind when this plot element came up.
Pretty much every sequence ends with somebody shot and killed or the landscape blown to smithereens. Sadly, what could have been action joy is hampered by the PG-13 rating and self-censoring. In one violent moment, Hex kills a man by placing his head near a rotating ship propeller. The guy falls to the floor, and we see that he only suffered a minor blood loss and no gore. This film's mixed position is like remaking UNFORGIVEN but have the main story start with a prostitute being slapped instead of scarred.
Speaking of prostitutes, there is Megan Fox as a pointless love interest. She doesn't do much or get any development besides that she is tough. Fox proves this in the final third with good results, but you need to sit through her unbelievably flat facial expressions and acting in the beginning. I thought Fox has been slowly evolving as an actress, but this performance really impedes the progress.
To be fair, the prostitute line was originally reserved for the rest of the cast. Despite having Malkovich, Aidan Quinn, Michael Shannon, and oddly Will Arnett, none of them do anything beyond going through the motions. You can blame the script as well, but they should have tried by relying on their own direction than what director Jimmy Hayward gave them. The only standout, excluding Brolin of course, is Michael Fassbender as an Irish henchman revels in his nihilistic tendencies. Why his character couldn't be the main antagonist, since that would have some semblance to the story, is a question I asked constantly sitting through this laborious mess.
JONAH HEX, in reality, was obviously not going to have much impact this summer season whether it did middling or good business. But the epic collapse at the box office and its undistinguished outcome made it a sore-spot to notice. It will fade away until the next comic book fiasco, or it might follow Marvel's PUNISHER film franchise and simply remake itself again to try to get it right. Either way, there will be more scorned eyes looking at it.
FINAL REVIEW: 2 / 5
The film is now garnered as the token example of the utter failure of this year's summer movie lineup. Though it has many errors in judgment and direction, JONAH HEX is summed up with one of its ending frames: a display of fireworks, bright and somewhat imaginative but fades away quickly for the next batch of mediocre outputs.
In one of the only good performances, Josh Brolin is wisely cast as the titled character, who's origin story is quickly shown in the first scene. A former Confederate officer, played by John Malkovich, murders his family and mutilates his face for his past insubordination. Time jumps ahead after a thoroughly confusing animation sequence, and Hex is a bounty hunter with new but odd supernatural powers. He is asked by the U.S. government to kill Malkovich before he uses his atomic orange cannonballs on America's centennial. Shades of WILD, WILD WEST sadly went through my mind when this plot element came up.
Pretty much every sequence ends with somebody shot and killed or the landscape blown to smithereens. Sadly, what could have been action joy is hampered by the PG-13 rating and self-censoring. In one violent moment, Hex kills a man by placing his head near a rotating ship propeller. The guy falls to the floor, and we see that he only suffered a minor blood loss and no gore. This film's mixed position is like remaking UNFORGIVEN but have the main story start with a prostitute being slapped instead of scarred.
Speaking of prostitutes, there is Megan Fox as a pointless love interest. She doesn't do much or get any development besides that she is tough. Fox proves this in the final third with good results, but you need to sit through her unbelievably flat facial expressions and acting in the beginning. I thought Fox has been slowly evolving as an actress, but this performance really impedes the progress.
To be fair, the prostitute line was originally reserved for the rest of the cast. Despite having Malkovich, Aidan Quinn, Michael Shannon, and oddly Will Arnett, none of them do anything beyond going through the motions. You can blame the script as well, but they should have tried by relying on their own direction than what director Jimmy Hayward gave them. The only standout, excluding Brolin of course, is Michael Fassbender as an Irish henchman revels in his nihilistic tendencies. Why his character couldn't be the main antagonist, since that would have some semblance to the story, is a question I asked constantly sitting through this laborious mess.
JONAH HEX, in reality, was obviously not going to have much impact this summer season whether it did middling or good business. But the epic collapse at the box office and its undistinguished outcome made it a sore-spot to notice. It will fade away until the next comic book fiasco, or it might follow Marvel's PUNISHER film franchise and simply remake itself again to try to get it right. Either way, there will be more scorned eyes looking at it.
FINAL REVIEW: 2 / 5
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