Le Anne Lindsay (Tinsel & Tine)
Whenever a film is based on a comic book character, I always feel intimated about making commentary. Sure there have been constant DC (and other) Comics made into flesh and blood movies; some like Batman & Superman done 2 & 3x over. Comic book aficionados seem to be accepting of the fact that deviations and poetic licenses are made for the big screen versions of their favorite graphic novels.
But when it comes to critiquing these films, I feel a background in knowing the character from its original source is needed to do a proper assessment. My knowledge is strictly based on a childhood of Saturday morning cartoons, of which Jonah Hex was not apart.
I went in search of an official Jonah Hex (the graphic no
vel) blogger and found one – Matching Dragoons. This site contains interviews with the actors, Jonah Hex tidbits, explanations of character plot points by volume etc… But the one thing it didn’t contain was a review of the film. Unlike me, who through PFS, got to see a preview screening on Wednesday night; this Jonah Hex junkie has to wait until the official film opening tonight.
So my idea of giving this guy the floor and re-blogging his review and user comments were not to be.
So here’s my take – First off, it is blissfully short – running time 85 minutes. Probably a good thing for Josh Brolin, who as the lead character, has to chew off words out of a crooked slant. The prosthetic is awesome, but really looks uncomfortable. Now in the movie, this deformity comes from being branded with a QT by his nemesis Quentin Turnbull (John Malkovich). Hex later takes a fiery axe and brands his own face to at least obliterate the initials.
According to Wikipedia, the story of his deformed face is quite different. Hex was more or less raised by Indians. Similar to Jake in Avatar, who had to fight an un-accepting rival after being adopted by the Na’vi tribe. In Jonah Hex – “He was soon betrayed by the envious son of the chief while on a raid. He returned years later to challenge him in a sacred tomahawk battle, but the chief’s son sabotaged Jonah’s tomahawk. Jonah used his knife in self-defense when the tomahawk broke. The tribe saw this as breaking the rules of the sacred battle and sentenced Jonah to wear the mark of the demon by pressing a searing hot tomahawk to his face.”
In this film, Hex is married with a son to a Native American and is later nursed back to health by her tribe; we are not privy as to how his original association with the tribe came about. Although it is a set up to Hex’s supernatural powers, that of being able to talk to the dead. This is my favorite part of the film.
Here’s a list of my favorite communicators with the dead in order:
Hurly (Jorge Garcia) Lost, Allison Dubois (Patricia Aquette) The Medium, Cosmos Topper (Roland Young) Topper, Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg ) Ghost, Lucy Muir (Gene Tierney) The Ghost and Mr. Muir, Melinda Gordon (Jennifer Love Hewitt) The Ghost Whisperer.
You’ll find, one of my major things when making commentary – I always look for romantic chemistry, even when there’s only a hint of a love story. I’m also not ashamed to admit, as a straight woman, I like looking at female eye candy, and I find Megan Fox to be extraordinarily beautiful! However, this film would have been better off without a femme fatale at all. Fox’s character, with a pencil thin corseted waist, is such a waste. No chemistry between she and Brolin and Fox’s acting is as thin as her waist.
Because I don’t have a big screen TV or Blue Ray, I normally pay full price for action films in the theater; not wanting to miss out in terms of CGI and action sequences. This one I could have seen on my cheap DVD player and antiquated picture tube set and been just fine.
Next up – Almost Famous at Piazza at Schmidts (A favorite flick of PFS Managing Director) Thursday, June 24th 7pm sponsored by WMGK. Great way to spend a summer evening!