Jonah Hex Staff Review
Ever since the first successful X-men, comic-book-based films became a dime a dozen, it seems as if every month a new one appears in our local cinemas. The flavor for the month of June 2010 is Jonah Hex.
Enlisted by a Union soldier (Will Arnett), scarred bounty hunter, Jonah Hex (Josh Brolin) scours the Wild West in pursuit of Turnbull (John Malkovich), a crazed voodoo master with a scheme to assemble a zombie army that will fight for the Confederacy. Based on the cult, DC Comics hero, the action Western also stars Michael Shannon as strange circus impresario, Doc Cross Williams, and Megan Fox as the prostitute Leila.
For what he has to work with, Josh Brolin (
Hollow Man) does a decent job playing Jonah Hex -- a Crow-like figure that is out for revenge against the wrongs done by John Turnbull against his family. On the other hand, the other two leading characters, Megan Fox (Transformers) and John Malkovich seem like they are just character cuts with nothing deeper to their characters other than what is seen on the screen -- which to be honest, is very little.
Clocking in at a mere 81 minutes, Jonah Hex really does not have time to fully tell a cohesive story; and it certainly shows. Scenes are quickly cut from location to location, and it appears that most of the film was left on the cutting room floor.
The color palette chosen by the director and the cinematographer is extremely bright and definitely not what you would expect of a period piece set in the post-civil was era. In all honestly it looks like it was filmed on some backlot somewhere, and they definitely did not spend their money on historians trying to make the film accurately represent the time frame they are trying to portray.
Having been heavily promoted at Comic Con 2009, I personally could not wait to see this film. However, my dreams and aspiration of what this film could be now appears to be much better than the finished product on screen. Do yourself a favor and save the price of admission for this one; and if you really want to see this film, wait for the Blu-ray release later on this year.
--Nathan M Rose
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