Jonah Hex is a former confederate soldier who has started a family and tried to live a peaceful life. Eventually, Quentin Turnball, a former commanding officer, catches up with him seeking vengeance for the death of his son, which Jonah inadvertently caused. Killing his family and scarring his face, Jonah is left for dead, but is helped by neighboring Native Americans. After his recuperation, he finds he now has supernatural abilities, which help him in his new craft, bounty hunting. The U.S. government now needs his help to stop Turnball and the doomsday machine that he is building.
Despite Jonah Hex's appearance in the comic Weird Western Tales, he is not actually known for his supernatural powers. Hex in the film is able to talk to the dead by touching them. Apparently, after they perish they, become omniscient towards the people they knew while alive. He also seems immortal. He sports a collection of gunshot wounds yet is still walking. Part of the appeal of Jonah Hex is similiar to Batman. He is just a normal guy with normal abilities. Armed with his six shooters and his ugly mug, Hex faces down insurmountable odds and comes out the otherside victorious. Granting him powers makes Hex bigger than the normal man. Whatever humanity could boil over his col, dark facade becomes completely untethered from the character when you realize he perpetually has one foot on the other side.
Josh Brolin is near perfect as Jonah Hex. His blunt cynicism matched with his gruff attitude make for an especially badasss cowboy archetype. He is surrounded by an impressive cast including John Malcovich, Michael Fassbender, and Lance Reddick. Fassbender is delightfully sadistic, but Malcovich plays it mostly straight leaving his villain with very little personality. Megan Fox plays the primary love interest. She does a little more than sleepwalk through the film relying on her looks, which she has done in the past. I thought she found a softness behind her cold prostitute's eyes. Michael Shannon is criminally underused given one scene where he just yells, and Will Arnett steps up in a dramatic role without chewing the scenery too much, like he is known to do in comedies.
Clocking in at 81 minutes, the run time is a welcome change to the 2.5 hour run time these summer comic book adaptations usually are. It is written as a short and sweet western actioner, and while there was plenty of potential for fun, the movie just falls flat. The amateur directing of Jimmy Haywood leaves the film with very little personality. Despite decent performances from Brolin and Fassbender, none of the actors seem to gain enough momentum to really sell their characters. At times, the film attempts to be surreal, depiciting Hex and Turnball fighting on red clay during their real-life encounters. While I appreciate the attempt, it does nothing to progress the characters or story in anyway. It is just an unnecassary set piece. The film also skirts the concept of steampunk, a form of science fiction set in Victorian England or Frontier America where the primary energy source, steam, is used to power advanced technology in context of the time period. The movie never takes full advantage of this concept. Turnball's doomsday device is only used once while being tested and remains mostly secretive for the rest of the film. I barely recall if it is ever truly revealed. This makes for some interesting visuals, but attracts far too much compariosn to the big time flop, Wild Wild West.
Brolin performs admirably, but this movie is bland and dull. It is almost as if it refuses to show you anything amazing, just teases you that something amazing could happen. It is too bad though. The western genre is dying, and could have used some vitality. Brolin was such a perfect fit for the role and Hex had such potential as a character, this film just feels like a waste
4/10
