Movie Review: Jonah Hex

Jonah Hex 

Warner Bros., Legendary Pictures, Mad Chance, Weed Road Pictures, DC Entertainment, USA, 2010. 

Based on DC Comics character. 

Jonah Hex (Josh Brolin) is a former Confederate soldier who betrayed his army after General Quentin Turnbull (John Malkovich) began to attack hospitals and schools. Turnbull murders Jonah's family and puts a brand on Jonah's face. Saved by Indians he gains the ability to temporarily resurrect and speak with the dead. Now he works as a bounty hunter but there is a bounty on his head too. 

Jonah Hex

Quentin Turnbull

More Dakka the Western Way

To the annoyance of Jonah apparently Turnbull has been killed in a fire. When more than just regular bandits rob a train it becomes clear that he is still alive. Turnbull and Irish madman Burke (Michael Fassbender) are building a terrible superweapon. President Grant (Aidan Quinn) orders a manhunt after the feared terrorists. Only Jonah Hex can stop Turnbull and save US of A! 

President Grant

Burke

Jonah's friend is a prostitute named Lilah (Megan Fox). Also gun dealer Smith (Lance Reddick) supplies him with fancy guns. He has also a horse named Horse and he gets a dog follower. Meanwhile Turnbull builds a cannon that fires Dragon Balls. 

Lilah

Smith

I must admit that I have never read the original comic. I guess it was not accurate as the fans hated the film. Weird west- movies seem to collect a lot of negative reviews as did also "Jonah Hex." Music by Mastodon works in some scenes and in some scenes not. Josh Brolin was good cynical western hero and there was potential to make him more interesting. The main faults were generic villains and routine plot. The story was hampered by script rewrites and reshoots, leaving many interesting ideas halfhearted. The action scenes with brutal potential are watered down to get the PG-13 rating. Maybe some director with crazier ideas could have saved the film. Still "Jonah Hex" had some fun moments, bad ass main character with supernatural skills and cool guns. It was also short so it never got boring.

Part of The 2016 Movie Watching Challenge (#30. Movie based on comic)

Rating: Average

Starring: Josh Brolin, John Malkovich, Megan Fox, Michael Fassbender, Will Arnett, John Gallagher Jr., Tom Wopat, Michael Shannon, Wes Bentley, Julia Jones, Luke James Fleischmann, Rio Hackford, David Jensen, Billy Blair, Sean Boyd, John McConnell, Jackson Townsend, T.J. Toups, Ned Coleman, John Wirt, Ty Holland, J.D. Evermore, Scott Staggers, Jimmy Hayward, Michael Arnona, Noel Murano, Preston Acuff, Jonathan Watts Bell, Vincent Riverside, Stephen S. Chen, Joseph Billingiere, Bill Martin Williams, Milos Milicevic, Eric Scott Woods, Maureen Brennan, Kennon Kepper, Grayhawk Perkins, Seth Gabel, Bruce Barnes, Andy Ryan, Darin Heames, Mitchell Amundsen, Matt Lasky, Aidan Quinn, Rance Howard, Antal Kalik, Michael Papajohn, Tait Fletcher, Paul Zies, Brian Elerding, Lance Reddick, Jake Radaker
Director: Jimmy Hayward