Samaritan
AMAZON PRIMEIf a film about two superhero twins, one evil and one good, both played by Sylvester Stallone was announced in the 1990s, its fair to say it would have lit up a storm within the action star’s fan base. But that was thirty years ago, and with the huge market of superhero fandom higher than a kite, it was only a matter of time that these old fashioned action stars would eventually dip their toes in the genre.
First and foremost, on the surface, Samaritan offers a compelling unique narrative. Only showing snippets of the character's backstory through flashbacks, Samaritan follows Stallone’s hidden away superhero after a fatal fight with his twin led to his brother's death, the void now opened in terms of a hero looking out for the city allows it to crumble with the people crippling in a place of poverty and criminality. The plot offers to look at a narrative often wasted or never fully realised – think Bruce Wayne between The Dark Night and Rises – by following the internal struggle of a person depleted and defeated with his own inner demons while also contemplating his continued absence is slowly destroying the city, is not only compelling but when nailed could strike something nothing short of gold.
The end result of the Samaritan is something in the middle. While director Julius Avery’s feature doesn’t exactly explore and examine said isolation and torment on an internal level that feels sufficiently unique or against the grain, it does so instead by expressing itself on a more on-the-nose, external parameter with typical examples being action set-pieces and flammable objects on the screen. Typically, the presentation of such visual devices is an appetite of making up for a lack of character development and in this case, it’s almost the exact reasoning for such an excuse. Executed in all manner of close-ups by cinematographer David Ungaro, whose work does its best to somewhat hide the cosmetics and install a form of framed aesthetic that diverts away the visual hinderances. This ultimately hurts the experience; for instance, the actual set-pieces themselves are here and often there with slightly amiss CGI. Nothing partially overstating and obtuse but elements that don’t necessarily add flair and atmospheric character to proceedings, especially when considering this is one main principle of the main character itself, missing the opportunity to be a character-driven feature even with the talents and story laying its framework ever so clearly.
Granted, for the average of audience typically intertwined with such prospects as the MCU, there is a need to entertain visually rather than stir the internal pot of character depth. Even then, Samaritan only scratches the surface of seeing a morbid and broken Stallone mope around rather than contextually explore thoughts, feelings, or sentiments. It’s all very clearly demonstrated visually but the exploration is ever so lacking and underwhelming. This is sadly made all the more disappointing when the talents of Stallone and newcomer Walton are often utilised to carry the emotional weight, and with the former an actor that can’t quite nail the emotional scale of the character and the latter actor really just starting to home his craft, it feels unfair to both criticise the performances and for the writers to expect them to carry such poor writing and expect considerably elevated results. Stallone and Walton do enough, the latter of whom constantly exceeds expectations and produces something out of nothing on screen driven by the actor's charisma and charm. It’s both effective and engaging in an otherwise unfortunate narrative that serves little more than a flat spectacle. The interesting one here is Stallone, the actor in multiple projects throughout his career has put forward stunning emotive performances of depth and absolute. Yet here the actor never seems to fully comprehend his character or know which direction and tone to take him in. This can’t be said for Walton, who manages to combat and ride the wave of tonal differing if comedic underbelly with heartwarming charm effortlessly. But Stallone can’t find the middle ground with little self-deprecated feeling found and strangely plays the role solely but surely straight on the nose with little humour and character illustrated.
Again, this would show signs of issues with the screenplay, which, in one moment, has restraint and a grounded approach with two characters contemplating life and death decisions, and in the next, EMP grenades going off in the streets and buildings up in a furnace. There is no middle ground and the feature constantly zig zags from being grounded and then erratic. It’s a sensation that represents the feeling and thought of the feature overall and no doubt with the actors present who can’t quite get a handle on proceedings much like the feature not ever staying on track. This is also presented on screen with a significant twist that becomes apparent to anyone who has an inkling of where this story will only go and not where it will go, which is such a disappointment. The twist perhaps adds an inkling subtext to certain characters and emotives that are present now with a second wind but alas it’s never enough to transcend the picture. It’s this feeling that ultimately engulfs proceedings as it wants to stay straight and play to one crowd while knowing it can’t alienate another with internal study and must indulge in set-piece but it doesn’t have to be exclusively one or the other.
With a sounder screenplay that digs deeper into the subconscious and thought and feeling, presented with a visual appetite m that is relevant but also restrained in the set piece then Samaritan could just please both sets of crowds. Samaritan will serve audiences well who want to see another brick-in-the-wall type mould and to see something with a little more edge than the typical superhero genre. That being said, Samaritan has so much more to offer with a tighter screenplay and a greater emphasis on one sole character of the titular superhero but instead crumbles around genre convention and fails to please all its crowds.
