Jonah Hex (2010)

Written by Per Gunnar Jonsson on January 11, 2014

I have to admit that, apart from a couple of episodes, I never really read Jonah Hex when I was a kid. I did not like Western comics very much. Thus, I have no point of reference as to whether the movie is true to the original comic series. Maybe that is an advantage when seeing this movie in that I cannot get upset by the movie not being true to the original. Actually I am reasonably sure that this movie with it supernatural and steampunk influences are not entirely true to the original comic series.

Despite what seems to be the general opinion I quite liked this movie. The story is mostly comic book material but then this is a comic book character after all. I thought the story was good enough. There is plenty of quite enjoyable action in it. Josh Brolin is doing a good job of portraying the bad-ass Jonah Hex and John Malkowich is perhaps not managing to project the diabolical übervillain image that the Turnbull character is supposed to have but he is still not doing a bad job. Megan Fox is, well…Megan Fox. She is fitting the character and the movie fairly well though.

It is my understanding that the supernatural element of the movie is not something that can be found in the original comic series. It did not really disturb me. I am not sure that it added very much but it was okay.

I understand that people having read and being fans of the original comic series would be upset if the movie did not follow the original but I have to say that I do not understand why everyone else seems to bash it as well. It was an enjoyable hour and a half of fun action. Jonah Hex was the bad-ass that you hoped for. This movie was a much better “interpretation” of a comic series than the abysmal Green Hornet for instance where the hero was turned into a fumbling idiot.

For me personally, this movie was definitely on the upper half of the enjoyment-factor scale.