Jonah Hex

First, I want to mention some of the good stuff. Josh Brolin is excellent as Hex, perfect casting, great job by Brolin, thoroughly enjoyable to watch. John Malkovich was very good in a role that could have easily been too over the top to be taken seriously. Fassbender was genuinely creepy, Jeffrey Dean Morgan was great, and Megan Fox looks gorgeous and her acting is not that bad. Combine that with an amazing soundtrack by Mastodon, (and a surprise cameo by Brent Hinds) I have to say I enjoyed the movie. The negatives: "The Weapon" - a weird, quasi-science, completely unexplained "nation-killer" invented by Eli Whitney... WTF? Stupid. While on the subject, why does the world have to be at stake? A simple revenge tale would have sufficed. Aidan Quinn was awful, but it probably wasn't his fault, unless he wrote his own lines. Why tell Hex's backstory with a couple of minutes of poorly animated crap with a voice-over when they could've filmed Hex's origin sequence and made it a much better movie? No idea, but I can't explain many of the choices that were made on this movie. Why was it only 80 minutes long? Who thought that was a good idea? Who cast Will Arnett in a straight role? I kept waiting for him to do something funny. To sum it up, there was some really good work done on this movie, but there were too many terrible decisions made that left it a disjointed mess in spite of its potential. As a life-long Jonah Hex fan, I was happy to see him captured so perfectly by Brolin, but disappointed as hell that the studio screwed up the movie so badly, and ruined any chance of this becoming a successful franchise.

I'm hesitant to call this an out and out terrible movie as some have labelled it simply because it was mildly entertaining. There's a lot of action, some cool ideas, a great performance by Josh Brolin and the short 80 minute running time doesn't hurt it either.

The sad truth of the whole thing is that it just didn't come close to its potential. For starters, Jonah Hex didn't have to be macabre and supernatural...to my knowledge this wasn't even part of the original comic books that the movie is based on. The original story is simple, Jonah Hex's family is murdered, he's horribly scarred and left for dead. He gets better and sets out for revenge. It's a pretty classic western tale...one that we've seen before but given the general lack of western movies these days, that doesn't matter...there's plenty of room in theatres for a fun out for revenge Western. Having said all that, the supernatural ideas that they came up with are actually kinda cool, and I would've been happy to see them mixed in, if only they'd been handled better. Instead these elements seem tossed in as an excuse to include CG effects that the box office loves oh so much.

The end result is an unfortunate mash up of a good ideas...that maybe could've worked if more time had been put into development, it feels like it was either slapped together too hastily or suffered from a massive reedit...during most of the film I couldn't shake the feeling that there was maybe a 2 hour+ director's cut lying on the floor somewhere which may or may not be a superior and more coherent film. I was looking forward Jonah Hex based on a short appearance he had in a Batman cartoon years ago...from that alone I thought the character had a lot of movie potential but I was let down. Brolin's performance is the best part of the movie. Malkovich is good but nothing too spectacular considering his track record, and even Megan Fox is half decent but she doesn't have a lot to do with her pretty much useless character.

Analysis Paralysis!

It was fun. Everyone did a competent job. It's not a movie for intellectuals, just for people who enjoy flicks. As more people see it, its rating will go up. It's now 4.3/10 with 1,266 votes. Watch.

I really enjoyed that the special F/X were not overdone.

It's a comic book fer cryin' out loud!, it's not supposed to be No Country for Old Men!

I was never bored, it was well paced.

That whole business with the dead people was fun and nice plot enhancer.

I really don't know what all the negative fuss it about.

It's not a summer blockbuster, it's a summer popcorn and soda, better-than-T.V. techno western flick.

Actually, my expectations were so diminished by all the bad press that I enjoyed it More that I expected I would.

As I read all the detailed bad press and saw what over analysis was in the comments, and discounted all that, that's what put me over the edge to go and see it.

And I'm glad I did.

It was fun.

No one's careers were ruined. Just briskly moving summer fun.

Sometimes I wonder if people that reviewed this film actually watched it, or if they gave it a chance, not like second glancing at it because they're cooking dinner at the same time.

Jonah Hex is an entertaining little movie based upon the DC Comic Book character. To be honest, I've never read the comic, had little expectations coming in, and wouldn't have gone to see this in the theater. This genre is admittedly, 'right up my alley'. Usually I check some ratings on here before renting movies so that I avoid the flops. Thankfully, I didn't look on IMDb until AFTER I had already rented it. So when I looked at IMDb's 4.6 user rating AFTER renting it, but BEFORE watching it; my expectations were lowered even further, and I nearly put off watching it, again. Nevertheless, it was due the next day and I popped it in the DVD player when the other-half went to bed(too bad - she would have liked it). I have a good sound system and a nice TV - both made this action/western/fantasy even better.

Let's take a look at some of the films on IMDb with similar user ratings - specifically some of the worst films that I have ever seen/wasted my time and money on.

Ready to Wear(Pret-A-Porter)4.8 Actually rated higher than Jonah Hex. This was two hours I will NEVER get back. A terribly boring movie with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

King Solomon's Mines 4.6 Tied with Jonah Hex. This may be the worst movie I have ever seen. A literal walk out of the theater. And I know what you're thinking. I talked about giving movies a chance earlier, but I revisited KSM years later, and it still remains the worst film I've ever seen in my lifetime, 1 and a half times.

Toys 4.6 Enough said.

Jonah Hex' style is true to the comic book theme. The opening of the film is excellent, and gives us a good foundation for an entertaining storyline. John Malkovich is ALWAYS a good adversary/bad guy, and Josh Brolin IS Jonah Hex. Megan Foxes' role is small, and she serves every purpose, much like a smoking hot Bond girl. Her Body alone makes this film worth 4.6.

But, Jonah Hex is much more. It's interesting, it's action packed, and it's well-paced.

Now, is it believable? No. What comic book based film is? Is it Oscar worthy? No. Will it appear on any legitimate 2010 Top Ten lists? No. Jonah Hex is the pure definition of a popcorn flick. Not just one that rare movie watchers might over-rate(It's no nine or ten), and one that critics will annihilate, but one that is sure to surprise many who give it a chance. It's worth the rental - especially if you have a TV and sound system that can give you a near theater experience. I like some of the subtle touches to this movie, and Malkovich and Brolin really help the cause.

58/100

You'll like it if you liked: Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer, Brotherhood of the Wolf, and Timecop.

Your typical action film based on a comic, but with some surprising elements. It had some macabre features (where jonah could talk to the dead and he obtained quick reflexes after a near death experience) and though megan fox had a mediocre roll she had her moments where her acting overdid her role in Transformers. (not quite a accomplishment, but still...)

If you haven't read the comic and maybe not biased by expectations, you most likely like this one. It has all the elements for a good action film and the his personal crusade with his nemesis general turnbull makes it worthwhile to watch.

IMDb rates it with a poor 4,6 I rate it with a 6,5 (G.O.O.S.) ( for the original effects and surprisingly OK acting from megan fox and entertaining storyline)