Samaritan

Twenty-five years ago, Granite City's superpowered vigilante, Samaritan, died in a fiery battle with his rival, Nemesis. Thirteen-year-old Sam Cleary believes his reclusive neighbor is actually the long-believed dead superhero hiding in plain sight, and he is determined to bring that hero back to life.

Granite City is a humid and decrepit bit of urban sprawl that is in desperate need of a hero. It’s a city that definitely isn’t Gotham, but it’s unclear whether or not it is the same city where The Mask and The Crow live. It is a city of sadness and regrets, of rain, steam, wet parking lots, crime, puddles, slums, and a fanciful criminal element who really seem to enjoy their work. It’s a place where broken-down old men with superpowered secrets, men who have Apple Juice on their cereal for some reason, are befriended by young boys who look like they were born to play the child version of an adult character that is being played by Jeremy Renner.

Samaritan is a film that dares to ask: Will the old hero suit up one last time in the city’s darkest hour? Will he answer the call? Or will he deny the call? Will he just let it ring maybe, and let the answering machine get it? OR… will he deny the call, BUT THEN LATER answer the call? Also, in the big climatic fight, will he catch the killing blow from his enemy in one massive hand, to the shock of all who witness it, and then slowly rise back up to his feet to face that enemy, an enemy who until that very moment erroneously believed themselves to be victorious?

Oh, the delightful anticipation!

Samaritan is a film that also dares to ask: which would surprise you more to learn, that this film is based off a basically unknown indie comicbook, or that the comic in question WASN’T published in the 90s?

In the end, Samaritan is mostly unremarkable in how mediocre it is, and always does exactly what you expect it to do. I initially thought it might choose the slightly more interesting option of the two possible end-twists the opening credits very unsubtly hint at, but nope… it took the less interesting one.

C’est la vie.