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 Lilah (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). Based on the 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.
When watching the trailer of this movie, you see some potential that this movie could possibly be a great action western.WRONG!! The somewhat fascinating thing about
Jonah Hex is that there are the makings of an "interesting",
not good, film here. Basically, the original story is simple, Jonah Hex's family is murdered, he's been horribly scarred and left for dead. However, he gets better and seeks for revenge. It's your typical classic western tale...one that has been seen before but given the general lack of western movies these days it did not even come close to being a contender.
Unforunately, the film has quite a few drawbacks (and saying a few is being nice). The main flaw is that it's much too short. It isn't even an hour and a half long (only when adding the credits is it 73 MINS long). So with that said one can only imagine that everything about the film moves along at a rushed pace. The sad truth of the whole matter is that it does not even come close to its potential. Another downfalls of the film is that it jumps around from one bit of the story to the next and with a short running time (it appears that this was done to build the "style" of storytelling) it contributes to its epic fail. And with that style of storytelling it just doesn't work, because now you feel as if you're watching something that is missing footage (which it probably is...lol).
Now let me briefly touch on the characters, Brolin, who you can see really tried hard and to successful portraying Jonah Hex. Its just sad that Jonah Hex was there, but the movie itself wasn't. For what its worth, Brolin is probably one of the best fits for the part of Hex, but it seems like he, as well as Malkovich merely gave as much effort as the paychecks would allow. Both did what they could to carry the movie, but the two of them could not have possibly carried that weight alone. In the case of Megan Fox she merely brings mostly eye candy to her role as a promiscuous woman who has a soft spot for Jonah Hex. Her one decent action scene towards the end of the film, however adds little to her somewhat defunct acting repertoire.
In the midst of this bad film, I have to ask the question did the cinematographers forget how to lens a night scene in westerns? Watch the film and you will know exactly what I mean.
Well I could go on and on but it would be like beating a dead horse so I shall stop now.
It's amazing that unless you are a marvel comic like one of the X-Men, Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, or a DC Comic like Batman or Superman your likelihood of success on the movie screen is not too high. And this movie is a perfect example. Its almost as though DC Comic films are cursed (minus the current Batman & Superman flicks), cause they are all pretty much doomed to fail!
Grade: 1.5 out of 4 stars
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