All is not well in Granite City. The economy is in the toilet, crime rules the streets, superheroes are dead and, worst of all, annoying fans won’t stop bugging Sylvester Stallone about his early work.
“Samaritan” stars Stallone in his first lead superhero role since 1995’s embarrassing “Judge Dredd,” but he’s played the type many times before. Films like “Cobra” and the “Rambo” sequels have long presented the muscular star as a larger-than-life figure, standing tall against evil and kicking its ass for a third of a century. He may not have a long history of actually wearing tights but the role still fits.
Stallone plays Joe, a world-weary garbage man who keeps to himself and repairs old junk as a hobby. Javon Walton (“Euphoria”) co-stars as Sam, a young teen who is obsessed with Granite City’s superhero, Samaritan, and supervillain, Nemesis, who reportedly perished fighting each other decades ago.
Sam worships Granite City’s fallen saint but his mother is in dire financial straits and they’re about to get evicted, so he finds himself committing petty crimes to pay their bills. His work attracts the attention of a local crime boss, Cyrus (Pilou Asbæk, “Game of Thrones”), a grown-up fanboy of Nemesis, who claims the alleged supervillain was a misunderstood revolutionary who punched upwards and “humbled the proud.”
When Sam runs afoul of Cyrus’s tattooed underling Reza (Moises Arias, “Jockey”), it’s Joe who comes to his rescue, halfheartedly knocking the criminals this way and that, and crushing a knife in his bare hands. Sam won’t be fooled by Joe’s feeble excuses. He knows he’s finally found Samaritan, and now he’s going to annoy the crap out of Joe until Joe tells him geeky stuff about how his powers work, and teaches Sam how to fend off bullies on his own.
Julius Avery’s previous film, “Overlord,” was a deliriously ambitious World War II men-on-a-mission film that collided headfirst with a mad scientist zombie epic. His follow-up doesn’t have the same scope but it has similar ambitions, finding a new approach to old material by squishing unlikely subgenera together until they fit. “Samaritan” is a superhero movie by way of “Finding Forrester” and it’s a winning combination, juxtaposing youthful fan enthusiasm for simplistic fantasy archetypes with embittered experience and moral nuance. It’s not a complex film but it’s got big things on its mind.
The film is clearly designed as a showcase for an aging actor to play in the superhero sandbox while preserving their dignity. If “Samaritan” were made three decades ago it’s easy to imagine Charles Bronson in the title role. Stallone has long been making a cottage industry of playing tough guys with one last story in them, and he plays Joe with a spot-on mix of Rambo’s baggage and Rocky’s decency.
Meanwhile, we’re all just waiting patiently for Hollywood to realize that Pilou Asbæk – so spectacular in films like the Oscar-nominated “A War” – can do more than play charismatic bad guys. Until then at least he’s great at it. The screenplay for “Samaritan,” written by Bragi F. Schut (“Escape Plan”), paints Cyrus as a villain with a meaningful ethos but it’s a little vague about what he actually believes in and how he plans to enact meaningful change. Mostly he just wants to blow things up and lead violent riots while spouting speeches from Bane’s “drafts” file.
The problem with “Samaritan” isn’t its execution. It’s a smartly conceived, engrossing take on the superhero genre. The film telegraphs its big twists so much that they’re more like foregone conclusions, but it almost works that way; the characters are unwilling to see what’s right in front of their faces, too caught up in their own worldview to ever question it. Meanwhile, stunt coordinator and 2nd Unit Director J.J. Perry – who recently made his directorial debut with the exuberant supernatural Netflix thriller “Day Shift” – keeps the action grounded and intense.
No, the problem with “Samaritan” is that the film asks intricate moral questions about the world of superheroes but only provides general, hand-waving answers. The idea that superheroes are just glorified cops upholding an oppressive status quo, and the idea that the villains may have been right all along – at least in their principles – are rife for serious exploration but the only way to do that is to get into the nitty-gritty of the superpowered characters and their true motivations. “Samaritan” asks those questions directly and yet somehow seems satisfied with general platitudes in response. It’s frustrating to see an impressive genre film be so very, very smart, and so very, very unwilling to show its work.
Still, “not quite great enough” is a pretty good drawback to have. Avery’s film is a solid piece of genre entertainment, grounded by excellent performances, and clever enough to find a new way to present the same old tropes. Like an old hunk of junk fixed and cleaned up, and made into something new again, and worth paying full price for.
“Samaritan” premieres globally on Prime Video Aug. 26.