Review of Jonah Hex (2010) by Ola G — 10 Jul 2011

During the american civil war, Jonah Hex (Josh Brolin) fought for the southern side and the rebels. Jonah eventually killed his friend Jeb Turnbull and stopped his soldiers to burn down a hospital as this is an act that does not have place in war according to Jonah. Jonah ends up being discharged from the army. Jeb´s father, the confederate general, Quentin Turnbull (John Malkovich), has his sight on revenge for the loss of his son. And when Turnbull finds Jonah, he kills his wife and son and disfigures Jonah for life. Jonah is close to death when he is saved by indians. The result of being brought back from the dead, is that Jonah can speak to the dead. Jonah goes on living as a bountyhunter where death lurks in his shadows and Turnbull is supposedly dead. The fact is that Turnbull staged his own death and is now on the trail of a weapon of mass destruction that was never been built, but the blueprints still exist. Jonah is hired by President Grant (Aidan Quinn) to stop Turnbull and end his terrorist acts towards America...

First of all, Jonah Hex was a DC Comics Character I grew up with in the 70´s and I loved this disfigured former confederate soldier turned bountyhunter. Thus, I have a special relation to Jonah Hex. Hearing that they were finally making an full fledged movie out of Jonah Hex made me think that it was time for it. I saw still shots from the set, it looked interesting and Josh Brolin was not a bad choice for Jonah. Then came the reviews... A massive bomb according to the critics. I had to see this no matter what, and I can say afterwards that "Jonah Hex" is not a massive bomb in my book. What "Jonah Hex" suffers from is a short running time and a script that is unfocused and with too much of a hint towards todays issues with terrorist acts. And that the movie don´t really allowed proper character development. It´s not shitty CGI or other issues. So, they have altered one or two things. Jonah can suddenly talk to the dead, his disfigurement came from Turnbull not from indians etc. But, I didn´t feel that this was an issue really. Even if John Malkovich does yet another bad guy. And yes, Megan Fox´s participation was quite pointless, since she didn´t get anything to work with. But, Fassbender is solid as Burke. "Jonah Hex" had been better if the script had been fleshed out in a good way with maybe a slightly different story I reckon. But, for me "Jonah Hex" is ok. Not a masterpiece, but ok.