Samaritan, the new superhero film starring Sylvester Stallone that was released on Amazon Prime Video last weekend, started life as a screenplay by Bragi F. Schut, before becoming a Mythos Comics series created in collaboration with artist Marc-Oliver Frisch, and colorist Renzo Podesta. The movie, directed by Julius Avery (Overlord), follows Sam (Javon Walton), a boy who discovers his neighbor Joe (Stallone) may be the supposedly dead superhero Samaritan. Despite its gritty tone, it wants to feel as a big as any current cape flick, squandering its intriguing premise, and feels underdeveloped as a result.
Credit where credit’s due first: it looks very stylish and atmospheric, beginning with a semi-animated backstory laying out the history of Samaritan, and his disappearance after defeating his evil brother Nemesis. Set in a perpetually wet and windy version of Atlanta, the film has a refreshingly impoverished protagonist, who runs with a gang led by villain Cyrus (Pilou Asbaek), stripping parts from condemned buildings for cash, while his mom (Dascha Polanco) struggles to make ends meet as a nurse. Joe, who lives a corridor away in the same apartment block, works as a garbage man, and recovers items to tinker with and repair in his spare time.
Stallone is reliably charismatically stoic as always, and Walton is a likeable co-star, however, the film seems to luxuriate in establishing its earthy, deprived world, and with a scant runtime of 100 mins, that’s a problem. It takes too long for the inciting incident — Joe rescuing Sam from a group of gang members who are pissed at him — and the unmasking of our title character to unfold, meaning we only get a precious handful of scenes exploring the dynamic between our two distinct heroes, before the villains inevitably come for them.
The scene that best embodies Samaritan‘s issue of being “interesting, but unsatisfying” is a scene where Joe gets angry at Sam for prying too much into his past, and why he gave up the masked life. Stallone is a solid and often underappreciated actor, but he’s nowhere near explosive enough in this moment to convey how upset he’s supposed to be. It definitely needed another take that would’ve left us genuinely unnerved by how much this is affecting him, and is a great example of how the film doesn’t go hard enough.
Similarly, the film’s intensity is held back by its PG-13 rating: while Joe gets burned, bloodied and broken bones despite his superhuman endurance — which is great — the action scenes are weirdly bloodless affairs, trying to emphasize fight choroeography (including at least one one-take scene), when it would’ve been better at this scale and budget by being more visceral and graphic. (Even adding something as small as some bonecrunching sound effects would’ve gone a long way.) It’s an issue compounded by the realistic approach, which causes the fiery climax to feel especially odd, as none of the characters are struggling with the smoke; it’s a disappointingly hokey ending for the movie that came before it.
Samaritan really feels like it is trying to punch above its weight and compete with bigger superhero films, especially with how Asbaek’s antagonist — whose goal is to become the new Nemesis, stealing his idol’s mask and hammer from police lock-up — recalls the Joker and Bane from Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, trying to stir chaos and anarchy with speeches that fall flat thanks to the small groups of extras. Asbaek gives the role his all, but he can’t overcome how much of a cliche his character is, complete with a scene where he tortures a guy while Sam secretly watches, horrified by the realization of how much of a monster his boss is.
The movie feels like it wants to say something about modern America, with Cyrus telling Sam Samaritan was a glorified cop, and another scene revealing the police are on his payroll, but for the most part it plays like a right-wing fantasy, with people being stirred up to loot and riot for the hell of it. (Some might point to Stallone’s own politics and ask if we should’ve expected anything else, but his views are fairly unusual for a conservative — he’s pro-gun control — so that would be uncharitable.) There’s a solid twist at the end, that suggests a far more morally complex picture, but by that point the movie’s in a race to the finish line.
It ends on a pretty hurried note, that strongly hints a sequel will follow, but after seeing the rushed and ultimately tame end result, I can’t see there being much enthusiasm for a follow-up, which there might’ve been even after this was sold to Amazon — if only this entry were a longer, R-rated pleasant surprise that gave the friendship between its two main characters the attention it deserved.
