Defendor (2010)

Thanks for the memories!

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Blistering performances.

I remember seeing this back when it first came out. About 8 years later I was reminded of the movie.I love it. It sucks you in with sharp dialogue and relatable characters who you definitely root for until the end. Not only all of that, but the story/message is beautifully done. "Defendor" isn't like other super hero movies, though. It doesn't follow the same bland pattern we all know and love (or hate). Arthur doesn't fly or have "super powers". He is simply a guy in a make-up mask who protects people with homemade weapons (he uses a jar of wasps among other things) - whose purpose in life is to capture Captain Industry. Kat Debrofkowitz isn't your regular "damsel in distress" either. She is a young prostitute who first meets Arthur when he beats up Chuck Dooney for being a "punk with a badge". The whole first half of the movie is being told through Arthur/Defendor giving his deposition to Dr. Park explaining why he assaulted Mr. Debrofkowitz (Kat's dad). There, Kat knowingly lies to Arthur telling him Radovan Kristic (played by A.C Peterson) is Captain Industry - when he is in fact not - because she figures they both want revenge so it'd be a win-win. The second half is happening in real time.At the end when Defendor/Arthur gets shot I cry every single time. I can't help it and I rarely cry watching movies. Woody Harrelson and Kat Dennings make a great team. Elias Koteas plays the prefect bad-cop-douche-bag. Sandra Oh is very believable in her role too. The whole cast did a stellar job, but major props to Peter Stebbings for taking a washed up premise and making it fresh, beautiful, inspiring, and for the ages.

Indeed, if he was an orphan and lived in a crime-filled depressive slum of a town, becoming Defendor could be Mr Gump's idea of upholding the good. Both characters are mentally stuck in their childhood and are haunted by the traumatized past in their present.But Defendor is no Forrest Gump. And it's definitely not Woody Harrelson's fault, because portraying a brave and righteous but weak-minded and ultimately very vulnerable Arthur Poppington was definitely a step up on his acting ladder.The real problem is the film's mood. Forrest Gump was more or less a fairy tale. In a Grimm'esque sense of course, with dark and sinister twists and turns, but with an overall feel-good vibe and a sad but happy ending. Defendor, on the other hand, is no fantasy but rather a child's perception of the adult people's real world's problems. You see it from the get-go that there's no chance for this story to end well, and only a lucky combination of unlikely events allows the protagonist to get that far.In that sense Defendor is more like Observe and Report with Seth Rogen, where he's a glaring opposite of his typical easy and wisecracking slacker roles. That movie is no less sad than Defendor, but at least it dares to show the misery of a person lost in the maze of his mind and his life realistically. Rogen's Ronnie, a shopping mall security officer obsessed with making himself important, is a mirror in which lots of us, who have lost hope for a brighter future, could see themselves. While Defendor, with its heroization and optimism grounded in nothing, is as real as a burnt sugar lollipop: dark and bitter but nonetheless cloyingly oversweetened.

Arthur Poppington (Woody Harrelson) is delusional and under the care of psychiatrist Dr. Ellen Park (Sandra Oh). At night, he fights crime as superhero Defendor. He has no real powers other than his home made weapons and his unbounded delusions. Angel (Kat Dennings) is a street kid that he rescues from crooked cop Chuck Dooney (Elias Koteas). He's after crime boss Captain Industry.It's a pretty good performance from Woody. Writer/director Peter Stebbings needs better cinematic style. It also needs more comedy. Kat Dennings should be perfect but she's not being maximized. Overall, I really like the concept but it needs better writing and better directions. The movie has a certain innocence that doesn't quite mesh with the darker material. There is a need to get a more consistent tone.

Woody Harrelson is one of those actors whose movies I never initially set out to watch, not in the same way I would for Robert De Niro or someone. However just recently it's occurred to me that most of the films that I've seen of his I've enjoyed.So when I saw he was in Defendor I thought why not give it a go? I was expecting a kind of Kickass style superhero flick about a bumbling idiot who ends up a hero. And in many ways, at least on the surface, you could say that that would be a decent one line summary of the film. However there's far much more to it than you'd expect.Harrelson plays Arthur Poppington, a somewhat homeless man who appears to be suffering from a few learning difficulties. He is helped a lot by his friend, Carter, who has given him a job and some kind of construction site. However after being majorly influenced by comic books Poppington sets out to take to the streets and take revenge on some of the drug lords in the city.He lacks any sort of super powers, but what he lacks in power he makes up for in sheer determination and as much as Poppington is slightly frustrating to watching he is also a character that you can't help but root for, with Harrelson playing him to perfection. One of his exploits he comes across a drug-addicted, teenage prostitute (Kat Dennings) who he sort of takes under his wing - although at times she appears to be irritatingly ungrateful and at the same time Poppington manages to annoy a local corrupt cop (who looks an awful lot like a bald Robert De Niro) as he sets himself up to take on a man who he believes to be his arch-rival, Captain Industry.Does Defendor a.k.a Poppington manage to thwart the villains? Does the city embrace him as a hero? Does Kat Dennings ever thank him? I couldn't spoil it for you. However all I'll say is this really is a touching character study at times and is perhaps as close to life as a vigilante "superhero" type might ever actually be. If only this film was marketed better at the time I think it would have found a good fan-base, however it isn't really a popcorn film and by not being so genre conforming it does lose some of its possible audience.