Defending Defendor

The preview left me believing that something funny was going to happen, but it’s a lot more serious than you believe. I was expecting something like Zombieland, but this isn’t even close.

I like the style the story is being told in. You see the hero in jail being psychoanalyzed. The viewer becomes Sandra Oh, the psychologist, trying to piece together what made Defendor who he is today and how he got into jail.

 This isn’t the typical superhero movie where you see the hero save the day and everything is all hunkie-dorey. You see the hero get his butt kicked over and over. You see him fall on his face and the bad guy wins. It’s not like Dragonball Z either, where the hero loses one fight and then comes back 8X stronger and wins the fight. No, Defendor loses pretty much every battle he gets in to. But he still gets up and keeps trying. Even when he gets show multiple times, he still gets up and tries to take down the bad guy. And he dies in the end. When do you ever see a hero die? It’s painful and sad, but it’s nice in that uniqueness. I think that’s why I like this movie. He’s just a normal guy trying to do right by his mother. He’s kind of like Batman without the money and cool toys. Or maybe like the little kid in Pay It Forward.

I love the subtle humor in this movie. He labels things: Defendoor (his door) and Defendog (the bobble-head dog that rides in his car). Also, when Sandra Oh asks him if he has anything that he wants to add he starts doing math. That was just brilliant.

In the end, I was pleasantly surprised. At the beginning, I was laughing and everything and I was like okay this is going to be a movie making fun of superhero movies. Towards the middle, I got more and more depressed and I wasn’t sure if I would like the movie at all because you just see this guy getting his butt kicked and the bad guys winning. I don’t mind being depressed, but I just really felt for the guy. So go Woody Harrelson on that part. By the time the movie was over, however, I loved it. Sure he dies, but he stuck to his guns and helped out the people he left behind.

I wish there were people like him in real life. People who are willing to stand up even though everyone thinks he’s an idiot and even when he’s in jail, he’s still willing to fight for what he believes in. He’s admirable in that respect. Maybe like a Christ-figure…