As soon as I saw the trailer for this movie a few days ago, I knew I had to watch it. I've been a huge Sylvester Stallone fan ever since I first saw him play John Rambo in "First Blood" when I was a kid, so hearing he had a new superhero themed movie coming out was exciting for inner 10 year old me. The movie looked like a lot of fun, and I couldn't wait to head over to Amazon Prime and watch it.
In this movie a young boy named Sam is growing up in a tough neighborhood, surrounded by poverty and crime. This young boy is obsessed with superheroes and the urban legend of one of the greatest superheroes, Samaritan, who disappeared 22 years ago in this neighborhood and who was thought to be dead. Sam is sure that Samaritan is alive and he is determined to find the superhero and hep him take his rightful place as the protector of the city again. Unfortunately, resident bad-guy Cyrus has plans to take over the mantle from Samaritan's arch nemesis (conveniently named Nemesis). Samaritan and Nemesis were superhuman twin brothers who waged an epic battle for power before they both supposedly died on that fateful day 22 years ago, and Cyrus has big ideas to carry out Nemesis' evil plan to take over the city, hoping to succeed where Nemesis failed. He builds an army of faithful followers and even tries to get Sam to join his team. Meanwhile, Sam meets a garbage man named Joe who he is sure is really Samaritan in disguise. Will Sam succumb to the temptation and turn evil, or will he find the strength to resist, and will Joe accept his birthright and the supposedly dead Samaritan rise from the ashes and save the city once again?
This movie isn't known for its subtelty (come on, the bad guy is literally named "Nemesis") but it doesn't have to be subtle, it just has to echo the comic books I remember devouring when I was a kid. My uncle David would always bring comics over for my brother and I when he came to visit, and he was always sure to point out to me the female superheroes (like Storm and Jean Grey from the X-men). There aren't any female superheroes in this movie, but there is a female on the bad guy's crew, and she is the closest thing Cyrus has to a sister, and their relationship adds more dimension to his character. Sam also has an awesome mother who works long hours so he can have a better life, and she's played by Dascha Polanco, who is one of my favorite actresses from the show "Orange is the New Black." It was great seeing her in this movie.
The relationship between Joe and Sam is the heart of this movie, and it goes from one of animosity to grudging respect to genuine caring, and it's fun watching them interact. At first, it's unclear whether Sam will wind up on the right path as he spends a lot of his time hanging out with petty thugs and skirts the edge of joining Cyrus's gang. It's really his friendship with Joe that steers him back to the straight and narrrow (as Joe tells him, there's good and bad in everybody's heart, and you have to make the right choices whom to serve). Seeing the reluctant Joe slowly come around to the idea of being the hero is fun to watch, and the fight scenes are cool, there's lots of explosions and action to keep you entertained and the acting is good enkough to carry the movie through a few rough patches where it gets to be a little preachy. That's ok though, because I remember comic books of my youth being a little preachy too, and I still loved them. Overall, this is a fun movie and one I'm really glad I checked out.
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