This week on Catching Up On Cinema, Trevor reviews Julius Avery's, Samaritan (2022)!
Headlined by Sylvester Stallone, Samaritan (2022) is a quaint and generic, but largely well-directed and produced superhero flick.
One part Last Action Hero (1993), and one part Resurrecting the Champ (2007), the film is not devoid of interesting ideas, though it sadly opts to pivot away from deeply exploring any of them.
While Stallone may receive top billing, Javon "Wanna" Walton is very much the protagonist, making it highly likely the films' brisk pace and surface level exploration of themes are symptomatic of it being intended for a young teen audience.
Sincerely performed, with engaging cinematography and editing, the film is a highly competent production from a technical standpoint, but sadly lacks originality and that certain je ne sais quoi that is required for an indie superhero flick to resonate with audiences in a very crowded subgenre.
Not a terrible film by any measure, Samaritan's legacy will likely go onto be that of a keep busy project for an aging Stallone, and a "movies his dad made him do when he was a minor" film on the early filmography of young Javon Walton.
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