Samaritan starts off with a really cool stylized opening scene that got me excited. The first act is mildly entertaining. You can feel the streaming-level quality but it's still enjoyable in one-time viewing kind of way.
Then the second act starts to meander and lose steam. I start to notice the bad acting, the inconsistencies in logic, the idiotic character decisions, and some really stupid parts that made me roll my eyes. The third act doubles down on all of this.
I went from "this is pretty decent" to "get this movie out of here." It also didn't help that I found it fully predictable. Maybe I watch too many movies but nothing surprised me.
But the thing that annoyed me the most is the decision to make this PG-13. All of the action scenes are screaming for an unrestricted R-rating. I saw a similar thing with Netflix's The Gray Man. It's a much better movie but should have definitely been rated R.
The difference is, The Gray Man did a great job of hiding the restrictions on violence, strategically with camera angles and edits. Samaritan doesn't try to hide it at all. There are scenes of brutal violence with zero blood. A throat is slit... with ZERO blood. It makes the movie feel amateur.
We keep seeing examples like this, like Morbius, a vampire movie without blood. I don't know when they're going to learn that this is a terrible strategy. PG-13 supposedly sells more tickets, but a good rated R movie is going to be more successful than a bad PG-13 movie.
But... this is a streaming movie with, to my knowledge, no theatrical showings. Tickets aren't sold. So why in the world would you limit yourself? Same with The Gray Man (limited theatrical release). I'll never understand it. Stop being cowards and go all out. (1 viewing, 8/28/2022)
Then the second act starts to meander and lose steam. I start to notice the bad acting, the inconsistencies in logic, the idiotic character decisions, and some really stupid parts that made me roll my eyes. The third act doubles down on all of this.
I went from "this is pretty decent" to "get this movie out of here." It also didn't help that I found it fully predictable. Maybe I watch too many movies but nothing surprised me.
But the thing that annoyed me the most is the decision to make this PG-13. All of the action scenes are screaming for an unrestricted R-rating. I saw a similar thing with Netflix's The Gray Man. It's a much better movie but should have definitely been rated R.
The difference is, The Gray Man did a great job of hiding the restrictions on violence, strategically with camera angles and edits. Samaritan doesn't try to hide it at all. There are scenes of brutal violence with zero blood. A throat is slit... with ZERO blood. It makes the movie feel amateur.
We keep seeing examples like this, like Morbius, a vampire movie without blood. I don't know when they're going to learn that this is a terrible strategy. PG-13 supposedly sells more tickets, but a good rated R movie is going to be more successful than a bad PG-13 movie.
But... this is a streaming movie with, to my knowledge, no theatrical showings. Tickets aren't sold. So why in the world would you limit yourself? Same with The Gray Man (limited theatrical release). I'll never understand it. Stop being cowards and go all out. (1 viewing, 8/28/2022)