Movie of the week

Jonah Hex, starring Josh Brolin and John Malkovitch

Note: Contains spoilers (but it might save you $7.50)

My sister and I are HUGE (and I mean HUGE) Michael Fassbender fans, so we have been waiting to see his latest project, Jonah Hex.  It opened Friday, June 18, to some pretty rotten reviews.  We almost let that deter us from seeing it, but we decided it was important to lend support to our favorite 33-year-old Irish actor (Fassbender).  I thought that most of the reviews came from people who loved the comic books, so they would understandably have higher standards for the movie.

Boy, was I wrong.  To put it kindly, this movie is bad--just plain bad. 

It's only 80 minutes, so there was little time for plot development or for the viewer to understand character motivations.  For instance, I didn't understand why the villain, Confederate officer Quentin Turnbull (John Malkovitch), wanted to destroy the country.  I get that he was angry about his son's death, but why would that make him want to unleash a weapon of mass destruction?  So for one, the movie would have been a lot better if there had been time for more back story and to understand why characters made certain decisions.

Second, the main character, Jonah Hex (Josh Brolin), wasn't someone I could sympathize with.  Sure, I understood his sadness and rage over losing his family at the hands of Turnbull,  and I can't blame him for wanting revenge, but I never saw any display of moral fortitude or qualities that made him a dark horse hero.  For example, he only decided to help bring Turnbull down (and thus save the country) in order to get his revenge on the man, not because he cared about a higher ideal.  In short, he didn't stand for anything other than vengeance against the man who murdered his family.

Finally, as a lover of action movies, the fight scenes and action sequences did nothing for me.  I was especially excited to see the "fight scene" between Lila (Megan Fox) and Burke (Fassbender), but it amounted to little more than a slap and a punch and some dragging by the hair.  Not exciting at all.  This made me sad.  

There have been some mean comments made about Megan Fox.  I assume these comments are made by people who are jealous of her, and sure, how can most of us gals not be?  She's truly gorgeous.  But this shouldn't make us be mean about her.  Some people have said that her acting was bad, but I didn't find that.  I don't think her role was very interesting, but that's not entirely her fault.  I don't think there was much she could do with that character.  I'll say the same about Brolin--we all know him from No County for Old Men, W, and Milk, and we know he's a great, accomplished actor--but I wasn't too impressed by his performance and I think it's because the character (as it is written for the film) was so one-dimensional.  This I will say about Megan Fox--I'd like to see her take a few roles that have nothing to do with her looks or with her being the hot young female interest.  I'd like to see what she can do with her brain and inner qualities, and then I'd like to judge her as an actor based on those performances.  At this time, I feel it is premature and unfair to judge Megan's abilities.  She is just doing what anyone trying to break into the industry would do--get work based on what people consider to be her hottest commodity (looks) so that she can get experience and make a name for herself.  All actors have to start out in some rotten films and they get their roles based on their type.  It's kind of hard to ignore that she's beautiful, so unfortunately, that's all that she is known for now.  Let's give her a break until she proves she can't do much with better material.

The best part of the film was, of course, Michael Fassbender.  What I liked about his performance is that you can tell he committed to his character.  I wonder if on some balmy New Orleans evening he had his pint and thought, "This feckin' film is a disaster!  This director better quit arsing around and acting the maggot!"  (Thanks, irishslang.net)  Even if he did feel this way, you wouldn't know it by his performance.  He handled his sociopath, mayhem-loving Burke with energy and sick humor.  Too bad the film couldn't better showcase his gifts.  

Rating: 1/5 (Fassbender single-handedly provides any redeeming value in this movie)