As though Marmaduke wasn’t enough, ComicsAlliance sent me to see Jonah Hex yesterday, and now you can read my painfully detailed thoughts on the movie, the character, and why it doesn’t work.
There are a couple of things I didn’t get around to bringing up in the review itself, though — believe it or not, I do try to cut myself off before I go on too long. The first is that much like Batman, Hex as a character occupies that rare space of being both very distinctive and rooted in a specific milieu, but adaptable enough to work in a variety of settings. Hex, the mid-80s series where the gunslinger was transported to the far-out Road Warrior
Secondly, the scene I mention in the article where Hex is, in effect, forgiven for fighting for the South in the Civil War reminded me a lot of the line in Chuck Norris’s novel The Justice Riders where the main character and a member of his Civil War strike force (a former slave) shake hands, and there’s a line about how he looks into the eyes of “his friend and former owner,” which just weirded me out to no end. You’re going to go ahead and go there, and that’s what you’re going to say about it? Okay, movie. Have it your way.
Third, Will Arnett is pretty good in it. He should’ve had more screentime as the 19th-century version of The Angry Police Captain.
Your first two paragraphs are also why the Punisher doesn’t work as a movie character despite the three different attempts to make it work. And exactly why I wasn’t looking forward to a Jonah Hex movie.
Okay, I got to the bit about him getting a free pass for supporting slavery and actually made a HORK noise out loud. Thank you for saving me from paying ten bucks to get angry.
What’s with Warner’s obsessive compulsion with giving every lead character who isn’t named Batman a superpower, whether they have one in the original source material or not? Isn’t “crazy mad fighting skills” or “crazy mad acrobatic skills” or even “crazy mad shooting skills” enough anymore?
I can only imagine what the movie would have been like if it had been written by Lansdale and directed by….Clint Eastwood.
I saw this on Father’s Day with my dad and older siblings. While my sister just couldn’t watch the Arnett scenes without expecting a joke (doesn’t help that Blades of Glory was on, for basically the entire weekend), I wanted to see him in more scenes. It feels like there was a lot more with Arnett that ended up being cut from the final version.
But is it as bad as Howard the Duck?
So movie-version Jonah Hex is Brian Lumley’s Necroscope character in the Old West?
The Lansdale-Truman minis were always my favorite Hex stories, and you’re absolutely right about why they’re so good.
My only exposure to Jonah Hex before becoming aware of this film was the Batman: Brave and the Bold episode with Jonah Hex as an Outer Space Bounty Hunter. So the premise of this movie totally wasn’t a break from what had come before in Jonah Hex-Land, at least in my mind.
Doesn’t change the donkey balls-ness of the film, though.
“… reminded me a lot of the line in Chuck Norris’s novel The Justice Riders …”
Chuck Norris has written a novel?!
Actually, I would be surprised to find that Chuck Norris has even read a novel.
Jean Claude Van Damme, on the other hand, hangs around cafes in Europe discussing abstruse points of philosophie while they stack the boards he will smash with his forehead.
“Actually, I would be surprised to find that Chuck Norris has even read a novel.”
I am not in the least surprised to find that Chris has read said Chuck Norris-penned novel.
I liked this movie a lot more when it was 22 minutes long and featured Hex fighting Ra’s.
Obviously you guys are newcomers who missed it when I reviewed The Justice Riders in 2006.
The Angry Police Captain LOVED the Justice Riders!
And he has your badge and your gun in his desk drawer.