Ryan Shoots First: Samaritan (2022)

Amazon Prime lands a pretty big hero with the debut of its exclusive movie Samaritan starring Sylvester Stallone. Set 25 years after the disappearance of the famed hero of Granite City a small boy makes the discovery of a lifetime.

Early on in the opening of the movie I had a thought of a really cool thing that the movie could do. Well it turned out the movie did just that thing and it was very well done. The opening does a great job of setting stakes and establishing the world the movie takes place in. A city rotting to its core in the wake of its hero disappearing from the scene. At 13 Sam who is played by Javon Walton, is a Samaritan super fan. He lives a hard life with his mom in the inner city where she works nights. This leaves him alone to dream of his favorite hero that can fix everything with the swing of a fist. The harsh reality is much different as Sam fights to not fall into the wrong crowd that claims many of his age at such an early age. This duality causes him to develop relationships with both the protagonist of the movie “Joe” played by Sly himself and the villainous Silas played by Game of Thrones baddie, Pilou Asbæk. And yes he brings plenty of Euron Grayjoy to the role. I like that throughout the film both make points to Sam and even though we know one is good and one is bad it’s not hard to see how so many kids his age end up lured into this lifestyle. Sam does a lot of the heavy lifting in the film as he is in almost every scene and interacts with every character on screen. This is a lot of load to put on the shoulders of a younger child actor and it could have easily brought down the whole film but for the most part Walton delivers an acceptable performance with no real scenes that really just seem out of place or overly cringe. 

Sly plays Joe much like he has Rocky in some of his later films. A mild mannered, past his prime fighter just trying to lay low. Like Rocky though Joe learns he can only hide from his past for so long. The finale is equally as strong as once Joe started unleashing his powers and fully commits to his cause things pick up in a hurry and I enjoyed the way things are wrapped up. The biggest issue with the film is the middle. A strong opening and a strong end we’re somewhat lessened for a overly long middle where some things happen but multiple times. Making it feel somewhat repetitive and a slog to get to the climax. Some of this is in service to the reveal that happens in the final act. Much of the middle wouldn’t work once that tidbit is revealed so I guess I can understand that but perhaps the overall run time could have been shorter with most of that fat being cut from the middle. 

Samaritan is a fun spin on some super hero tropes while it isn’t looking to reinvent the wheel of the super hero genre it seems genuine in his voice and presents enough change to make it a entertaining watch. Plus who doesn’t want to watch Sly Stallone drive some dudes through walls right?