Better Cartoon than Movie
Unlike the big budget, live action monstrosity which let me down immensely, DC Showcase: Jonah Hex is an example of what a really good gritty Western flick is all about, even if it is a 12-minute animation short.
Hex is the bad@$$ bounty hunter who is hunting down a criminal and stumbles across some even worse fellas. And despite his brutality and mercilessness, he’s got a sense of justice lurking beneath that scarred exterior.
My favorite part was at the end where Hex and the brothel madam descend into the abandoned mine shaft and he discovers the bodies of dozens of her previous victims. Hex casually loads up the dead body of his quarry and makes to depart while the brothel madam starts screaming that he can’t abandon her down there. Hex almost laconically shrugs, “You got plenty of company.”
Hardcore. It’s a perfect stand alone story and while there isn’t too much about Jonah Hex’s past or history, you don’t have to know too much about the characters or their backstory with it’s simple and easy to understand plot.
Animation wise, this cartoon possessed excellent quality and realism of the Western setting but also the action sequences were well handled with the brief but explosive struggle between Hex and his ambushers. I personally think that they should have increased Hex’s facial disfigurement a bit more, increasing the level of grotesqueness but otherwise, I found the character designs to be well done as well.
The voice actors however truly excelled. Thomas Jane unabashedly did a tremendous job in bringing Jonah Hex to life with his raspy voice and great one-liners and Linda Hamilton was superb as the seductive Madam Lorraine.
I had little complaints except that Hex's past wasn’t even touched upon and relies on the knowledge of the viewers to fill them in. I’m not saying that this should have been a full-on origin story with obligatory flashback sequences but they could have added some parts in like maybe a few voice-over comments or remarks which would have fleshed out the character.
Otherwise, I felt it was over awfully fast and that they could have possibly stretched things out a little more but it is still far and away superior to the live action movie. Overall, that was the biggest flaw and failing to DC Showcase: Jonah Hex; it was simply too short for its character and too short of a story for what the bounty hunter bad@$$ deserved in a movie.
RATING: 3 and 1/2 STARS.
