Jonah Hex **

Boasting one of the most bizarre and disparic creative teams behind the camera that I have seen in a very long time – director Jimmy Hayward’s only previous directorial credit was the family animated feature Horton Hears A Who!, screenwriters Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (who are currently filming another supernatural comic book adaptation
in the form of the sequel to 2007’s Ghost Rider) are contrastingly known for the extremely adult (and completely mental) actioners Crank and Gamer and Friends star Matt LeBlanc has a credit as an executive producer (what the…?) – and based on what is perhaps one of DC Comics’ most obscure properties, the Jonah Hex comic book series written by John Albano and illustrated by Tony Dezuniga, Jonah Hex was probably always going to be a tough movie to make work at the box office if not creatively as well. From a commercial perspective adapting a z list comic book character was never really likely to work and when you throw in many of the ingredients that make up this film it is little surprise that it was such a colossal failure at the box office – it only cost $47 million to make but returned even less, earning a mere $10 million in the states. Lead actor Josh Brolin, while proven to be very capable in the acting department, has yet to establish himself as a box office draw who can open a movie to solid numbers while Megan Fox, whose appearance in this film was much hyped despite her only appearing on screen for a very limited time, has proven herself to be box office poison when appearing in any movie that doesn’t revolve around giant robots battling one another. Additionally, the film received some of the year’s worst reviews and when factored in with the surprisingly scant running time of only 78 minutes – a running time that might even be considered short for a straight to DVD Disney movie – it becomes apparent that the critics weren’t too far off the mark with this one, although Jonah Hex is still far from being the worst movie you will see this year.

During the American Civil War, Jonah Hex (Josh Brolin) was a rebel who fought on the side of the Confederate Army under the leadership of the vile Quentin Turnbull (John Malkovich). When he decided that he couldn’t go along with the atrocities being committed by his superior, however, he turned on his compatriots, resulting in Turnbull enacting bloody vengeance that resulted in Hex’s family being brutally murdered and Hex himself being scarred for life. Somehow crossing over the plane of death and back again, Hex emerged as a changed man, complete with supernatural powers, and, since hearing of Turnbull’s death in a fire, has aimlessly walked the earth aimless, making ends meet as a ruthless and infamous bounty hunter, his only human contact being in the form of a ‘relationship’ with strong willed prostitute Lilah (Megan Fox). When Army Lieutenant Grass (Will Arnett) tracks down Hex and informs him that Turnbull is very much alive and is building a “nation killer” super weapon, Hex is only too keen to assist in tracking down the man who killed his family so he can get his revenge. But Turnbull and his number two Burke (Michael Fassbender) are close to launching an attack that could destroy the United States of America once and for all and, as the only one standing in the way of this insidious plot, Hex must decide what is more important – his personal revenge or saving the world as he knows it.

Coming across less like True Grit and more like Wild Wild West (only without the latter film’s sense of fun), Jonah Hex emerges as a very conflicted film. The supernatural elements (which, apparently, are a significant deviation from the source material which demonstrated the character as having exceptional abilities but not necessarily supernatural ones) often feel shoehorned in and the lack of a more realistic edge to the Western aspects of the film prevent the film from being as thrilling or intense as it could be. The story feels very rushed and underdeveloped, us getting thrown right into events without much due care or consideration and little backstory being provided for Hex aside from a brief piece of exposition explaining why he and his family are targeted, leading into the depiction of his family’s murder itself which last mere moments, fails to make a substantial impact due to the film shying away from portraying the innate brutality of the events and really lacks any kind of emotional punch. Additionally, an animated sequence showing us how Hex goes on to become a bounty hunter seems cheaply constructed and comes across as a poor rather than stylish way to show us how Hex becomes the man we see for most of the film – actual plot would have been a far more effective way to portray this, but sadly anything resembling plot here is minimal, what we do get being a complete mess with too many conflicting ideas, none of which manage to emerge triumphant. With the scant running time of 78 minutes it really feels like a lot of stuff is missing and the lack of depth that results means that the story meanders rather than flows. Visually speaking the film is not without some positive aspects – the make-up on Josh Brolin is very effective, his facial disfiguration proving suitably convincing and the look of the Wild West is captured well through some decent and costume design and realistic looking props – but the effects generally prove just passable rather than impressive, there is no visual or creative flair on display, no artistry to the cinematography and the scale of events is too small, the film feeling far from epic. The film does, however, deliver a number of reasonably enjoyable comic book style action sequences and the acting also isn’t too bad, everyone doing a decent job at authentic sounding period accents, Josh Brolin being a pretty good choice for the lead and doing a very solid job despite being underserved by a mediocre script – Neveldine and Taylor really are better at visuals than they are writing – while John Malkovich and Michael Fassbender make for competent villains, Fringe fans will enjoy a brief appearance by Lance Reddick as a gunsmith and Megan Fox, playing a hooker (what else) really looks the part, though she is just eye candy more than anything else. So, Jonah Hex is not a film that will fully satisfy anyone – comic book fan or movie fan – but with such a short running time it definitely doesn’t outstay its welcome and it proves to be an averagely entertaining way to spend 1 hour 20 minutes.

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Review by Robert Mann BA (Hons)

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