Samaritan is a new urban superhero action movie directed by Julius Avery and written by Bragi F. Schut. The film stars Sylvester Stallone, Dasha Polanco (Orange Is the New Black), Javon’ Wann…
), Javon’ Wanna’ Walton , and Pilou Asbæk . This gritty story starts with promise, but the pacing comes to a screeching halt early on and never recovers. The cast is a solid mix of talented actors, but the script’s limitations restrict them. When stripped down to the basics, the Samaritan is a colorless venture that’s very much been there, done that, especially for Stallone.
The cold, dank, post-apocalyptic location of Granite City needs heroes. The city’s people are stuck between two factions: those who idolize the costumed hero, the Samaritan, and those who worship the volatile supervillain, Nemesis–these two are identical twins. Twenty-five years ago, both of them died in a warehouse fire, with Nemesis leaving behind a mighty hammer he forged before his death.
People can’t go to the police for help, but Sam Cleary , a street-smart 13-year-old from the projects, believes Samaritan is still alive. He forms a friendship with Joe , one of his older, grizzled, loner neighbors who works for sanitation and dumpster dives for collector items. The boy has no idea about Joe’s origins until one day, when the young teen is getting jumped by some local gangbangers Joe swoops in and starts throwing people all over the street.
While the action scenes are serviceable, it takes about 45 minutes to get to them. It spends most of the runtime with Joe and Sam walking around Granite City spouting exposition that doesn’t teach the audience anything new. The costumes and character personalities are plucked from pop culture. For example, Reza , one of Cyrus’ henchmen, is an unmistakable Takeshi 69 ripoff.
Of course, inspiration must come from somewhere, but there are so many references to other things Samaritan never stands on its own. Although, I will say the opening scene stands out amongst the entire film as it unravels like a live comic book with great editing and graphics. It’s the best part of the movie.lacks the depth to explore these concepts. There is a better film inside Schut’s script, but it needed a few more passes before heading to production.