Superhero movies are everywhere these days, but it's rare to find one that's based on an original concept. Samaritan is just that – although the writer Bragi F Schut has since adapted it into a series of graphic novels – and with Sylvester Stallone in the lead role, it seemed a promising combo.
However, from the moment we're told that Granite City – the fictional setting for the movie – is a place where crime is on the rise and there's a class divide (sound familiar?), it becomes clear that the concept might be original, but the execution anything but.
There's nothing inherently wrong with homaging (if you want to be kind) other classic superhero outings, but the story you tell has to be engaging enough to overlook the familiarity.
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Despite sparking into some life in its final act, Samaritan is largely a joyless trudge.
Watch Samaritan on Prime Video
It's not the best indication when the title sequence is one of the highlights of the movie. The background we need is given in an animated, comic book-inspired sequence as we're told that Samaritan and Nemesis became sworn enemies, leading to a fatal fight two decades earlier that resulted in their deaths.
13-year-old Sam (The Umbrella Academy's Javon 'Wanna' Walton) doesn't believe that Granite City's hero is as dead as everybody believes though. In fact, he comes to suspect that his reclusive neighbour Joe Smith (Stallone) is Samaritan and that he's the city's only hope against a violent uprising, led by gangster Cyrus (Game of Thrones' Pilou Asbæk).
The setup is promising, but Samaritan then doesn't seem to know what to do with it. Lip service is paid to potentially interesting ideas (such as Samaritan's power waning when he no longer cares), only for the movie to end up as a generic city uprising led by a bland villain for no clear purpose.
What doesn't help is that it all builds to a final act that supposedly contains a game-changing reveal – if you haven't been paying attention. The clunky script signposts what's going to happen so far in advance that when it eventually comes, it'll be met with a collective shrug.
The inevitable showdown between Samaritan, Cyrus and his numerous goons does at least provide some inventive and fun action, yet it's too little to save the movie. For something set in a gritty world, the climax is still tame though, adding to the confused tone throughout. Is it a knockabout comedy or a gritty superhero tale? We still don't know.
Stallone and Walton try to bring Samaritan to life and they have some fun scenes together. However, there's only so much they can do when asked to deliver lines such as: "People gotta get rid of their own problems or their problems get rid of them."
It's always welcome when somebody tries to do something new with a well-trodden genre such as superheroes. You'll just end up wishing that Samaritan went all-out and followed its own path, rather than trying to evoke everything that's come before.
How to watch Samaritan online at home
If you still want to give superhero Sly a try, Samaritan is available to watch right now on Prime Video for all subscribers.
Not a subscriber? It'll cost £7.99 a month, or £79 for a full year, to sign up to Amazon Prime to give you access to all Prime Video has to offer. It's worth noting there's a price increase from September 15 in the UK, with subscription costs rising to £8.99 a month and £95 a year.
In better news, if you've never subscribed to Amazon Prime or haven't signed up in the past 12 months, you can get a 30-day free trial, which will give you all of the benefits of Prime for the whole trial duration, including Prime Video.
Samaritan is available to watch now on Prime Video.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
