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 “Wanna” Walton (Euphoria) and Pilou Asbæk (Uncharted). 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, 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. Cyrus (Asbæk) is the typical evil guy gang lord who wants to bring the city to ruin and fills Nemesis’ shoes by stealing the hammer and mask from police evidence.
People can’t go to the police for help, but Sam Cleary (Walton), a street-smart 13-year-old from the projects, believes Samaritan is still alive. He forms a friendship with Joe (Stallone), 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. It’s then that Sam suspects Joe might be the hero Granite City’s been missing.
Samaritan offers the same type of action we always see from Stallone. The chiseled, grumpy older man is thrown into a situation he didn’t ask for and now must help the helpless and save the day. The final showdown usually takes place in an old warehouse or open field, with tons of casualties, guns a-blazing, and bodies flying. Those types of films can be entertaining, but there should have been more experimentation for the actor in this superheroic landscape.
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 (Moises Arias), one of Cyrus’ henchmen, is an unmistakable Takeshi 69 (yes, the rapper) ripoff. At the same time, Cyrus is a Bane copycat and gives a Bane-like speech to the people of Granite City in the same type of shearling coat Tom Hardy wore in The Dark Knight Rises. Lastly, Nemesis’ and Samaritan’s costumes are a clear callback to Captain America villain Crossbones.
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.
For all of its bleakness and themes of redemption and heroism, Samaritan 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. Avery deserves applause for giving Stallone a different avenue to explore, but I wish it would have pushed him beyond his cinematic comfort zone.
Prime Video launches Samaritan globally on Friday.