Jonah Hex is one of my dad’s favorite comic book characters so he was a character that I grew up knowing a bit about. He appeared in Batman the Animated Series in the 90s and my own son’s Batman show, Batman the Brave and the Bold even featured him in the 00s as well. Jonah Hex the movie was released in 2010 and it is a bit like what comic book movies used to be before they were so widely accepted.
How to Download Jonah Hex
Jonah Hex was released on June 18, 2010. You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice. If you like Megan Fox, you also need to see her in Transformers (2007), Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009), Jennifer’s Body (2009), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016), and Expend4bles (2023).
The Movie Review
When I first saw this, I kind of dug it, it was a movie that I saw in theatres and I even picked up the DVD when it came out. However, it had to have been like a decade since I saw this last, but I picked up on Blu-Ray in a 2nd hand store for £2 and watched it again recently. Before that whenever someone said this movie was garbage or one of the worst comic book movies, I would defend it.
The Impressive Cast
On paper, Jonah Hex should be great! It has a pre-Thanos and Cable Josh Brolin as the gunslinger, but the likes of Mega Fox, John Malkovich, Michael Fasbender, Will Arnet, Michael Shannon, and Lance Redick are also in the movie. The cast is pretty stacked for a 2010 comic book movie and one that had a rather modest budget at that.
The Story
The story of Jonah Hex is not terrible to be fair. Jonah Hex is a soldier in the Confederate Army and he is forced to kill his friend Jeb who is the son of Quentin Turnbull, our main villain in the movie. As you would probably expect, Turnbull does not take this too well and Hex is firmly in his sights.
Hex’s Iconic Look
This leads to Turnball murdering Jonah Hex’s family and branding his face, giving him his iconic messed-up-looking face for the movie. To be honest with you, the makeup and special effects on Jonah Hex’s face are pretty well done. I think that this is part of the movie that does deserve more credit than it gets.
Jonah Hex as a Bounty Hunter
After this, Jonah Hex becomes a bounty hunter and he is offered a chance at revenge as he is hired to track down Turnball who has gotten his hands on a powerful weapon. There are some things that I like about this movie, Megan Fox being a Western-era prostitute is great for obvious reasons, and seeing Michael Fasbender as the muscle for Turnball is kind of cool when you consider he would play Magneto in the X-Men movies a few years later.
Final Thoughts on Jonah Hex
Look, Jonah Hex is not a great movie, but I have honestly seen way worse! It is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine and I can see why some people say that it is not great. I think the rather sparse 80-minute runtime that forces the plot to be rushed and offers no major character development may be why some people could not get into it.
Nostalgia
However, Jonah Hex is a character that I have had a soft spot for since I was a kid so I am perhaps more forgiving when it comes to the movie’s shortcomings. I still have a few issues of the 80s Jonah Hex comic run (ranging from #56 to 83) that my dad gave to me. Sure, they are in rough shape, but I would never part with them. While not great, Jonah Hex can be a fun “turn your brain off” Western comic book movie if you give it a chance, I would wager a lot of people who say this movie is terrible have never even seen it!
