The superhero movie "Samaritan" starring Sylvester Stallone was recently shown on the "Prime Video" platform, and thus the veteran star enters the era of superheroes as well as electronic platforms, both of which were not prevalent at the height of their stardom.
The veteran star shined during the seventies and eighties of the last century when action films were the most sought-after in movie theaters, but after the rules of the cinematic market changed generation after generation, his activity declined to appear in a relatively smaller number of films, but here he is returning again to superhero films that are closer to action films Of course he's 76 years old.
Samaritan is a retired superhero
The movie "The Samaritan" takes place in a futuristic dystopia (a corrupt and scary world), where people suffer from poverty, violence, and the absence of modern technology in our world, with the presence of more violent and destructive technology.
On the other hand, it was supervised many years ago by a duo of two brothers who possessed supernatural abilities, “The Samaritan” and “Nemses”, one of whom took the side of good and the other evil, as the legends say, but they wrestled to death and then suddenly disappeared 20 years before the events began.
In our time, we get to know the child Sam, who lives with his mother, a nurse, on the edge of the poverty line, and her salary is hardly enough to pay the late rent and meet their livelihood, but the young one does not care about this in return for his obsession with the fact that the “Samaritan” did not actually die, but disappeared after killing his brother “Nemses.” He searches for the legendary hero in the face of every old man he meets.
His suspicions are recently focused on his neighbor, "Joe Smith / Sylvester Stallone", a lover of old appliances, who sees in every piece that others consider unusable in the hope of working again, and Joe saves his neighbor's child from the harm of older teenagers more than once, and the young one becomes convinced that "" The Samaritan, who is looking for him, while violent transformations occur in the city with the appearance of the criminal “Cyrus”, who sees in “Nemses” an ideal working to revive him, and the question remains that starts all conflicts, is Joe Smith really the Samaritan?
Will he be able to let his city fall victim to a new criminal?
The match between the two characters of "The Samaritan" and Sylvester Stallone himself cannot be overlooked. Both are former champions, whether in reality or in the movies, and also each of them reached retirement after great glory, and both of them return to activity under pressure, whether under the pressure of the war between good and evil for the Samaritan or greed. In more glory before the end of Stallone's career.
Sylvester Stallone's performance was commensurate with the character, as he is physically still maintaining his muscle mass and agility of movement, which made the action scenes look distinct and not contrived.
The world of superheroes outside of Marvel is even darker
"The Samaritan" and before that, "The Old Guard" on Netflix, provided the parallel picture of Marvel's superhero movies, with darker and less escapist themes.
There are ordinary superheroes, but they are weary of age, the length of the struggle between good and evil, the thin line between right and wrong, an anti-hero society, or even their personal and familial burdens.
In the movie "The Samaritan", the hero decides to retire after losing his twin brother as a result of the conflict between them, and to the end we do not know who he really is.
Is he the good "Samaritan" according to the legends, who some believe was the hero who supports governments that are indifferent to the sufferings of the poor classes?
Or is he the evil Nemesis according to some, and the defender of the rights of the oppressed from the point of view of others?
This ambiguity about the nature of the character makes him more human than the superheroes accustomed to in Marvel, who always stand on a clear side, whether good or evil, but as “Joe Smith / Sylvester Stallone” says at the end of the film, there is no pure evil or perfect good.
Man is a mixture of this and that and he has to choose.
Superhero films such as "Samaritan" do not need dazzling visual effects, such as those of Marvel, which mostly cover the thinness of the story and its repetitive formula, so it is suitable for electronic platforms and does not affect the viewing experience, and this film opens the door for other works that manipulate the rules of this cinematic genre And she's trying to give it some maturity, or at least lighten up Marvel's childish tint.