DC Showcase - Jonah Hex!

After the disappointment that was the Jonah Hex movie, DC and Warner's take another crack at the character and hit it out of the park. The new DC Showcase Jonah Hex animated short is everything the Jonah Hex movie should have been. Here there is no bringing back the dead "powerz" or iffy origins, just a straight ahead Jonah story with a deliciously dark edge, some great music, and fun performances.

The tough-as-nails bounty hunter always gets his man - until someone else gets to him first - in this case a murderous madam who wants to steal more than just his bounty from Jonah Hex. Based on a story from the award-winning Jonah Hex comic series, and scripted by world-renowned author Joe Lansdale. The voice cast is led by Thomas Jane (Hung), Linda Hamilton (The Terminator), Michelle Trachtenberg (Mercy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Michael Rooker (Days of Thunder).

Currently, the short film is available in two ways, Its a bonus feature on the Batman: Under The Red Hood DVD that just came out last month, and then it is going to be part of the DC Showcase DVD that is coming out later this year.

Honestly I dont know how long it is going to be online, so you should check it out as soon as you can, and maybe even support its release with a purchase! Maybe we'll see more of Jonah's adventure in the future when DC and Warner's realizes that we actually DO care about the character......when he's treated right.

You can see all of the awesome Jonah Hex action right HERE! Enjoy!

Movie Review: Jonah Hex

Jonah Hex has been getting spectacular reviews.......spectacularly BAD ones. On Rotten Tomatoes, it is currently at a 14% Rotten rating. So I went into this expecting the worst piece of poo of the season, and.....I didn't get it; not exactly. I will say this, I had fun in Jonah Hex, if you check your brain at the door and go in with no expectations, you might actually have fun watching this movie. Is it great? DEFINITELY not, is it good? sorta kinda...is it fun? yes, but like I said, its a big, dumb, fun B picture.

However, it isn't without its problems. The first point of irritation was that this isn't "Jonah Hex" the comic book character, it truly was Wild Wild West in tone. While Jonah is fighting off Turnbull in Virginia and Washington DC, Jim West and Artemus Gordon could have been fighting Arliss Loveless and his 80 foot spider in Utah and blowing up the town of Silverado.

...but something I wasn't prepared for is how grim the film was...Most of the clips Id seen (and the trailer) seem to have a rather comedic edge to them, Jonah was portrayed as a lovable curmudgeon who is always getting one upped by Megan Fox, that wasn't the film at all. While being VERY "comic booky" and "action movie" it was still fairly grim and serious in its style and tone, with only a few moments of humor spread throughout. Also, there was a lot about the trailer I didn't like, certain line readings seemed forced like the "I cut myself shaving what happened to yours?" line that Josh Brolin says in the trailer - Too loud, too fast...In the film all that stuff was fixed.

Story-wise the film was a bit muddled, but there was never a point (that I noticed) where I was lost, or didn't' know what was going on, the story is pretty simple and they stick too it (Turnbull Bad - Jonah Good, Jonah stop Turnbull)...which makes it a short film. Jeopardy is never really perilous, Jonah and Lilah get captured and then get free, Jonah gets shot and is close to death, but you know he isn't going to die....its more of a question of how he's going to survive.

The actors were good. Brolin is great, if they ever reboot this franchise I hope they keep him, Megan Fox was good too...I like her as a gun totting gunslinger girl, too bad there isnt much of that here. John Malkovich is was the weak link....not because he did a bad job but because he seemed too not know what the character was all about and just decided to do bored psychopath instead of intriguing villain.

As for the Weird Westness of this, They firmly planted it into the genre. The filmmakers didn't stop with Jonah talking to the dead or the glowy bomb balls, they even have a scene in a fight tent with a snake monster man who can extend his jaw and spouts sizzling venom. This film won't convince anyone that the Weird West is a viable interesting genre worth exploring (We'll have to wait for Cowboys and Aliens for that) but it isn't a hack job either....but then neither was Wild Wild West so take that as you will.

What irks me most about this film is it could have been great, instead of making it mediocre and then creating a stellar marketing campaign, the film itself should have been the draw, but instead they made a film that has nothing to do Jonah, really, they just slapped his name on it and will blame the films failure on the character not being very well known. This is a fun film, take Hex out of the equation and its a fun supernatural Western, but it isn't Jonah Hex like I said before and the failure this film is sure to be what will convince the studio heads that Jonah doesn't have the fan base for another try. If they could have gotten Lansdale in to do an adaptation of Two Gun Mojo (just to keep the tone of the first film intact - Sequel-wise) it could have been a hit. But I doubt we will see much more from Hex on the big screen for a long, long time.

I give it 3 out of 5 Bloody Spurs

Jonah Hex returns to animation!

Jonah Hex is building quite a collection of animated appearances. Its no surprise, he's a great character that deserves more exposure then he's gotten in the past.

At the end of July DC Premier is releasing their new animated movie Batman: Under The Red Hood, and as a bonus feature there will be a short film starring none other than Hex himself; for obvious reasons I'm very excited.

Well imagine my surprise when I went to the Newsarama comic site and found that 3 new images have been released from the short! While I'm not surprised by the decidedly dark tone of the images, I was still...a little surprised....and certainly delighted.

Here's what Newsarama has to say about the short:

Scripted by renowned author Joe Lansdale and starring the voices of Thomas Jane (Hung), Linda Hamilton (The Terminator), Michelle Trachtenberg (Mercy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Michael Rooker (Days of Thunder), the DC Showcase short is based on the award winning comic series. The short is rated PG-13.

In the DC Showcase story, the tough-as-nails bounty hunter Jonah Hex always gets his man - until someone else gets to him first - in this case a murderous madam who wants to steal more than just her bounty from Jonah Hex.

Sounds like a great cast! My only wish is that it were feature length. Maybe next time. You can find the images HERE and Batman: Under The Red Hood will be released on July 27, 2010.

More New Jonah Hex character posters and Trailer!

Ive been trying to keep up on the Jonah news of late and one of the things Ive noticed is that, despite the movie not looking all that great they are putting a LOT of work behind the promotional material.

Last week, 4 new character posters were released and they look top notch

And just this morning a newer, better film trailer was released. Im starting to warm up to the idea of this Jonah Hex not being the character from the comics and trying to let the movie speak for itself. Of course that isnt going to excuse a bad script....but we'll see about that.

Until then check out the new trailer, I think its a bit better....What do you think?

Jonah Hex at IGN.com

New Jonah Hex Poster and Trailer!!

I was going to wait and post about the new Jonah Hex trailer tomorrow, but with the poster coming out earlier this week I figured what the hell I'll just combine them and do one big super post of awesomeness! Except, and I hate to say it, I'm a little disappointed with the trailer. Its not really the trailer's fault though, I just had my expectations too high....

Being a huge fan of Jonah Hex in the comics I'm obviously coming from a different place than people who might not know him very well, or at all. Not unlike Constantine, Jonah Hex looks like its for the people who don't know who the character is. I know that the point of some movies is too make a fun exciting experience...and since this is a summer film they've added the bang bang and the boom boom and the Victorian super gadgets. People who have seen it have described it as The Outlaw Josey Wales meets The Wild Wild West....That doesn't bother me, in fact that is one of the things that makes me want to see this. I'm a fan of Wild Wild West, even though I have no illusions that its a good movie, (Its definitely better than some other Weird Westerns out there).....Of course Van Helsing looked good too...and then I saw that and....yikes...

Josh Brolin looks great, my only complaint is I wish he had a contact lens or something in his ruined eye....but I love his line delivery and he seems like he might be fun too watch as Jonah. Megan Fox looks serviceabley hot, as usual, although she might want to tone down the "Hot girl" roles if she wants to be taken as a serious actress (like she seems to want)

There's a giant metal ship with a cannon device (or is it the USS Monitor?) and some dynamite flinging crossbows that could be interesting (That's actually a pretty dang good idea). We'll see, I'm definitely going to go see it, I might even start getting excited as I process the fact that its not the comic, but its own version of Jonah. I DO like that it has supernatural elements.

As for the Poster, I LOVE it! I think the image looks good, well lit, its exciting...I like that they've obscured Jonah's scar (but still kept a hint of it). He's using that Dynamite crossbow AND a Gatling gun....also, there is some good character shots, bottom line, its a well put together poster. You can click on the picture above for a better look.

Anyway, the time has arrived to make your own judgments on the new Trailer, don't let your expectations get too high and you wont be let down....eh, who knows, this may be one of my favorite films this year!

Jonah Hex Motion Comics!

This could turn into Jonah Hex week, with the debut of the trailer tomorrow (Which Ill post on Friday), the new Poster revealed (Which Ill blog about tomorrow), and today's post, a brand new Jonah Hex Motion Comic, it seems like full Jonah goodness all around.

I know I'm in the minority, but I LOVE the DC/Vertigo comics version of Jonah Hex. They were a gritty, nasty, mature version of the character. Also they introduced me to Joe R. Lansdale and Tim Truman, AND of course (Although at the time, I didn't make the distinction) they were a Weird West version of the character...a genre which I think he really works in (another minority view I'm sure)

The first one, Two Gun Mojo, is the best and had a truly shocking moment of horror at the end.....The second Riders of the Worm and Such started off great and also had a couple moments of brutality that shocked me the first time I read it, but then sort of devolved into silliness.....and the third Shadows West, (I hate to say) kinda sucked and felt rushed and uninspired.......

They get less good with each mini unfortunately, BUT, Warner Premiere Digital has just announced the release of a new 7 part Jonah Hex Motion Comic based on the first one Two Gun Mojo, and two short stories from his original series, The Gunfighter and The Hangin' Woman.

And the best part about these, the first episode is out TODAY! The idea is that they will be released weekly up too the premier of the new film.

The official word from the Newsarama comic book site is this:

Jonah Hex Motion Comics will debut Wednesday, April 28th on iTunes, Amazon Video on Demand, Xbox Live / Zune Market Place and the PlayStation Network for 99 cents per episode or $5.99 for a season pass.

There's a lot of good Jonah stuff coming up in the next few months including an original graphic novel and a Warner Brothers animated short, so anyone unfamiliar with the character has plenty to choose from to acquaint themselves with...

...Starting with Two Gun Mojo, available today. I'm about to buy it, and maybe Ill even do a review....although I'm terribly bad at those things...so here's the official trailer for now:

Jonah Hex does Toyfair!

Recently the 2010 Toyfair at the Javits Convention Center in New York wrapped. They had all kinds of great toys from upcoming film like Clash of the Titans, Iron Man 2, Kick Ass, The Green Hornet, Alice in Wonderland, and (most importantly for the Emporium) Jonah Hex!

Now one of the things Ive been a little worried about is the lack of images, trailers, posters and what-have-you's for the film....especially since it was supposed to come out in April. Well, it looks like the release date has been changed to June, so they have a little more time to get things together.....but if the toys from the film are any indication of what the actors will look like, there may be nothing to fear....at least in terms of character design and costumes; John Malkovich as Quentin Turnbull (above) looks great! However, as far as story, visuals, and set design goes, that may have to fall in the wait and see category.

Comingsoon.net did a great article about the Toy Fair and has a gallery devoted especially to Jonah Hex (along with a bunch of other films as well!)

Enjoy!

Justice League Unlimited - The Once and Future Thing: Weird Western Tales

Its Labor Day, So instead of going out and sweltering in the hot weather you should stay inside and watch some Weird Westerns; or at least one. Its a fun episode of Justice League Unlimited called The Once and Future Thing. It follows Batman, Wonder Woman, and John Stewart (Green Lantern) as they follow the villain Chronos first into the past then into the future as he collects (or rather steals) historical treasures for his own collection.

This is only part 1 of the story (the part that deals with the Old West), Part 2 can be found here.

This marks what is probably the 2nd of the 4 known Jonah Hex appearances in WB animation, and while he isn't the star, Jonah makes his presence known, like always. If I can dig it up, Ill post the Batman episode where he IS the star, its a good one (And written by one of my favorite Weird Western authors Joe R Lansdale, Who Ill be writing about at some point.)

Other great DC Western heroes that appear are El Diablo, Bat Lash, and Pow Wow Smith.

I hope you enjoy it! And have a good and safe Labor Day!

EDIT: The videos I had here were taken down from Youtube and I haven't been able to find anything to replace them. So until I do HERE is a comprehensive synopsis of the episode and some other things.

The New Jonah Hex Poster!

Straight from the San Diego Comic Convention 2009, Warner Brothers Pictures has released the first official art work for the upcoming weird western JONAH HEX. Its a great looking poster, You don't see too much right off the bat, you kind of get the color scheme they are planning with it, and you see Jonah's scar....my only problem is the font they used for the title...it feels a bit too modern, sort of like its a Transformers movie. I was kind of hoping for a more period feeling one....but maybe this is just a pre-release thing they put together for Comic Con...In fact I'm sure it is.

I hate to be so picky, I'm a big fan of Jonah Hex and I just want everything to be right for the first film, Ive been thinking of a Jonah Hex movie for years now (since the 90s at least) but I will put my trust in Jimmy Hayward (the director) and the rest of the people working on this.

Jonah Hex, for those who don't know, is one of the great DC Comics Western characters. He's in the position of not only being in straight up westerns, but also in Weird Westerns as well....So this film has the very real possibility of being either one or the other. This is the official press release detailing the films plot:

In the Wild West, a scarred bounty hunter tracks down a voodoo practitioner bent on liberating the South by raising an army of the undead.

Hmm, sounds decidedly "Weird" to me. And yes, Jonah has a very distinct scar on his face that somewhat colors his character and the attitudes of people around him.
I'm going to be writing more about Jonah in the future, and Ill also be reporting more about this movie as information becomes available.

Here is the Wikipedia bio of him and, go HERE for a little taste of Jonah as he has been portrayed in animation recently.

There is much more about Jonah to be had, and more animation goodness, Ill revisit him periodically in the weeks and months leading up to the film.